Feminine Mystique for American society in 1960 - Essay Example

?English Comp I Magi Smith 12/06/ Catchy Here Feminine Mystique for American society in 1960   In the era of 1960s and before that women in America, especially married women, spent their entire life taking care of their husbands and children. Their whole life was confined to household chores and babysitting. However , the year of 1960 brought with it a wave of change in society and cultural transformation. The year witnessed thousands of women entering workplace and transforming themselves into an earning member of family. There was a sense of realization among women to open out to the outside world and gain independence financially rather than being a complete homemaker. Feminine Mystique had helped the women to express their irritations and dissatisfactions that have haunted them and with which they have dealt all alone (Wettstein). The spark was ignited by works of Betty Friedan in Feminine Mystique. The publication of such a work became the driving factor of forcing women to think about her own independent lifestyle. They appeared to be content, but a sort of irritation and dissatisfaction was growing within them. They were simply afraid to end up their life totally in this fashion with no recreation. A true feminist at that time was never supposed to demand for a successful working career or financial independence (Freidan, 58). The deep cultural changes were dragging women to workplaces and there they also ended up with dissatisfaction witnessing huge gender discrimination and more pay for male employees (unequal remuneration). Several protests led to social reforms in America after that (Walsh). Keeping this at the backdrop, the essay addresses the wave of change that stirred the American society in 1960s with publication of Feminine Mystique, which created a national debate about women’s roles and over time acknowledged as one of the significant works of the modern women’s movement. Interviews and surveys of contemporaries have been conducted by reputed organizations to find out the life of American women during 1960 i.e. post World War II. The Gallup organization had conducted 18,000 interviews of mainly divorced and aged women all hailing from 1960s.The respondents were mainly in their mid thirties with just basic education. Most of them were having a child or two and were complete homemakers during 1960s. These women were those who had witnessed World War II and got married some years post war. Stephaine Coontz’s opinions about women of 1960 has been captured in her remarks, “To modern generations these women’s lives seem as outmoded as the white gloves and pert hats they wore when they left the shelter of their homes” (Coontz, xii). Such remarks give an idea of women during the mid 20th century. It also emphasizes the value and credibility of their lives when viewed from the perspective of modern society. Women then were seen only as taking care of their husbands and parents. She had to do all the household chores hardly getting any time for herself. In one part of The Help the author Kathryn Stockett describes Leefolt saying “Twenty three years old and she lanky as a fourteen year old boy. Even her hair is thin, brown and see through” (Stockett, 1). The author shows a contrasting feature compared to Feminine Mystique where some women in society had no time for baby care and left them in care of other women. Those other women did the job with utmost devotion irrespective of their physical and mental state. But the approach of both the works has been quite different although they deal with a similar issue. Feminine Mystique talks about the life of women in general during mid 20th century. But in The Help the author has narrated a story where a woman goes on to take care of another’s child after losing her own son. The American society of that time has been depicted therein. Child bearing also came at an early age as women began to get engaged right after high school. The marriage age of 20 had dropped to 17 (Freidan, 58). Such an early marriage affected the literacy level of women and contributed for their backwardness in society. As women were only seen as a complete homemaker education was deemed unnecessary for them. Here the author rightly remarks, “By mid fifties sixty percent dropped out of college to marry or because they feared that too much education would be a marriage bar” (Freidan, 58). This also meant that male intended to dominate over their wives and the feminine class. They refused to give their wives an equal stand with them. It was male dominance that actually kept the wives away from progressing and prevented them to become independent. They were habituated of seeing their wives as slaves who could fulfill all their basic needs. Women also learned to cope with this situation and be satisfied with all this. This is because right from their childhood they grew up with such a bent of mind. As Betty Freidan says, “experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to breastfeed children and handle their toilet training” (Freidan, 58). A woman was taught to look upon careerist ones with pity and consider them as not normal. Their life was aimed for being a caring wife and then a good mother. Women were not considered eligible for a meaningful life like men (Coontz, 2). Women during that time were only considered eligible for serving and looking after their husbands. It was during the year 1962 that Feminine Mystique was published and it had a revolutionary affect on population immediately after that. The feeling of irritation and dissatisfaction led the women give up from being just a housewife to getting equal positions among men in the workplace. Women became determined to bring about a change in society and delete those existing perceptions about them. America’s history saw women working for wages. Not only that they also began to fight against unfair gender discrimination at the workplaces and unequal pay. Fight was also for legal approval of birth control pills and other contraception measures so that women could avoid unwanted pregnancy. The idea of feminism had undergone a drastic change from the ideas that existed before protests and feminist publications. Many other works on feminist challenges were published during that time. Political organizations and various social organizations extended their active support to the movements demanding equal rights from women (Woods). An interview of 42 women after publication of Feminine Mystiquerevealed women were no longer content with their current status of housewives and desired to think and do something beyond cleaning up their homes (Modra). The number of women choosing to live only as housewives has become quite limited. Women were determined to change their roles. Their thinking was not confined to husbands and children anymore. Hence the author says, “I began to get letters from other women who now saw through the feminine mystique, who wanted to stop doing their children’s home work and start doing their own” (Freidan, 514). Thus Feminine Mystique acted as a catalyst in women’s fight for financial independence. Although after Feminine Mystique women began to progress towards the outside world and started becoming independent, it could not be tolerated by the male dominated society. Pressures were building upon women to give up their independent thinking and resume their early lifestyle as housewives. This paved way to the movement of ‘second wave feminism’ that started during 1960s. Reviewing Feminine Mystique the author says that, “Freidan’s book explored that many American women were not happy being trapped into these very limited roles- and yearned for more freedoms and choices in their lives” (Benshoff and Griffin, 272). This is what Freidan referred as ‘housewife trap’ in her book. Previously the entire life of women was thought as for attracting and satisfying men. For maintaining a slim physique as that of models women consumed chalk instead of food (Freidan, 59). But the scenario had changed with publication ofFeminine Mystique. Women began to see their world beyond their husband’s satisfaction. Women began to think about their own lives going against their husband’s wishes. They began to continue with higher studies and obtained high positions in society. During that time a female physicist Maria Goepper-Mayer also emerged as a noble prize winner (Walsh). Overall it was proved that women were no less than men if allowed to progress in society. Political organizations and various social organizations extended their active support to this equality movement of women. The organization Women strike for Peace arranged processions all over the country. Constant pressures mounted upon the Federal government to fulfill demands of equal pay and end of gender disparity. Accordingly Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. Freidan herself contributed a lot towards advancement of women and helped in development of National Organization for Women in 1966 which fights for women’s rights. Her works has been an encouragement for women to increase their literacy level and achieve high positions in society (Callan, 272). This instances show that Freidan not only on pen and paper, but actively supported women’s independence. I interviewed Mrs. Jeanette Harvey, a great-grandmother of nine. She lived in Kansas City, Kansas during the 1960’s. She got married seven years after World War II. She was interviewed on her life after marriage and also whether she is familiar with Feminine Mystique. Mrs. Harvey did not complain about her married life but accepted the fact that she aspired to become a doctor. At the age of 24 she had become a mother of four. Her husband did not allow her to work and she spent her life taking care of house and growing up her kids. She also mentioned about the protests for equal wage which took place in 1963 after publication of Feminine Mystique. She remembered looking upon Betty Freidan as her role model at that time. Several women including some of her friends joined workplace post publication despite their husbands’ objections. Unfortunately, she could not dare to go against her husband’s wishes. Such was the popularity of Feminine Mystique during the sixties era. Women in the middle of the 20th century were seen as complete homemakers and spent their entire life serving their husbands and children. But a good feminist work like Feminine Mystiquehad completely changed the scenario in 1960s. This work encouraged women to join workplaces and become financially independent. Owing to constant protests from the male dominated society they fought for equal rights and even demanded equal pay in workplace. Political and social organizations also supported the cause actively. Women began to increase their literacy level and achieve high positions in society. Such cultural transformation of American society is undoubtedly due to Feminine Mystique and other such works published during 1960s. Women hailing from different society had also be looked upon who appointed other women for taking care of their babies. Work Cited Benshoff, Harry M., and Griffin, Sean.America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,2004 Callan, Jim. America in the 1960s, New York: Stonesong Press, 2006 Coontz, Stephanie, A Strange Stirring , New York: Basic Books, 2011 Freidan, Betty. Feminine Mystique, New York: Norton Paperback, 2001 Harvey, Jeanette. Personal Interview. 28 Nov 2011. Modra, Ruzz.“Literary Analysis: Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan,” Helium, (2009), 2 Dec. 2011. Stockett, Kathryn, The Help, New York: Penguin Group, 2009 Walsh, Kenneth T. 1960: A Decade of Change for Women, US News, (2010), 7 Dec. 2011. Wood, Maren L. The Women’s Movement, Learn NC, (n.d), 5 Dec. 2011. Wettstein, Jason. Eminent Social Historian Stephanie Coontz Chronicles Impact of the Feminine Mystique, Evergreen, 2011, December 12, 2011. From: http://evergreen.edu/news/archive/2011/01/coontz Read More