The Feelings of Betty Friedmans on Womens Rights in The Feminine Mystique - Essay Example

 The Feelings of Betty Friedman’s on Women’s Rights in The Feminine Mystique Thesis statement: Betty Friedman ignited the consciousness of women on the society’s attitude toward women’s right thru the writings on her book, The Feminine Mystique. This study will show the feelings of Betty Friedman’s on women’s rights that have affected the society’s outlook toward women. 1. Interrelationship of her work to other factors a. Social factors b. Political factors c. Historical factors d. Environmental factors 2. Betty Friedan’s attitude toward the major events identified in this research 3. How Friedman’s exposes did affect a change in the society. 4. Conclusion Historical Literary Analysis about Women’s Rights in The Feminine Mystique The Feminine Mystique was a book that touched on several interrelationships between the author’s views and that of social, political, historical and environmental factors. Each factor expressed her observation on the complacency of women about their status of life at that time. However, looking at her own experience, she felt there was something wrong in the situation that urged her to look deeper and to conclude that something was amiss somewhere. This book ignited the consciousness of women on their rights to their own happiness. Interrelationship between social factors. The Feminine Mystique published in the United States in 1963 became controversial because of its contents that were contradictory to the women’s femininity at that time. In this book, Betty Friedman argued that women suffered unhappiness on a problem that she said had no name. On this, Friedman presented several factors that she thought were the causes of this unhappiness. Her theory was that “women have been encouraged to confine themselves to the narrow roles of housewife and mother, forsaking education and career aspirations in the process.” Interrelationship between political factors. In the later years after the war, Betty Friedman observed women going back to domesticity in spite of the rights won thru the “feminist struggle”. She took note of this as coming from political campaign she called “counter-revolution” against women after the World War II. To prove her theory that the pre-conceived idea of a “Happy Housewife” was not true, she made a research that confirmed her assertions to be right. She wanted to correct the adage that “the woman’s place is in the home”. Many people countered her contentions, and sexual counter revolution took place. For example, in the work of Reed, she cited “Penis Envy” became the popular “psychological catch-all”, and was “the answer to women’s resentment against their inferior status.” Interrelationship between historical factors and her work. The conflict of reality on the lives of women after the World War II and the propaganda of the Happy Housewife program of the government led Friedman to think of the “mystique” in relation to her own life. She referred to the program as the brainwashers that began in education. She called the system as “A high-powered propaganda machine put into motion to exalt housewifery and stifle women’s desires for something more than a husband, home and children.” She said that the government started this with education by focusing on subjects like cooking, marriage and had pushed away science subjects. She cried out for the deterioration of education that was declared in campuses as: “We are not educating women to be scholars; we are educating them to be wives and mothers.” She found it hard to fight a mass propaganda that was supported by the government and media. She also found herself at odds with anthropologists, scientists and other scholars who sustained the idea of female domesticity. Interrelationship with environmental factors Friedman considered “economic conspiracy” as one of the factors that induced women to remain a “happy housewife”. She pointed to the effect of American business in keeping women to the house instead of pursuing higher points in life. Reed, in her study, said that American housewives can be manipulated “in order to have a sense of identity, purpose, creativity, the self realization, even the sexual joy they lack – by the buying of things” In an interview with a manufacturer, Reed has the following statement: “In a free enterprise economy we have to develop the need for new products. And to do that we have to liberate women to desire these new products. . . This can be manipulated. We sell them what they ought to want, speed up the unconscious, move it along. . . “The manufacturer wants her back into the kitchen—and we show him how to do it the right way. If he tells her all she can be is a wife and mother, she will spit in his face. But we show him how to tell her that it’s creative to be in the kitchen. We liberate her need to be creative in the kitchen.” Betty Friedan’s attitude toward the major event identified in the thesis. Betty Friedman assumed that the loss of interest of women to public affairs, conservatism and loss of struggle to fight might be an effect of the tiresome war of World War II, the quest for peace and stability of family found at home. Friedman described the situation as something that the “American spirit” falling into a strange sleep – the whole nation stopped growing up and going back to the brightness of home”. Friedman at this point noted the absence of a unifying purpose to rally about as shown in the questionnaire she used in her research. “A questionnaire revealed that there was literally nothing these kids felt strongly enough about to die for, as there was nothing they actually did in which they felt really alive. Ideas, the conceptual thought which is uniquely human, were completely absent from their minds or lives.” (Reed) How Friedman’s exposes did affect a change in the society. The writings of Friedman became a wakeup call that challenged the notion that the American women after the war are expected to become housewives and mothers. It made them realized that there was something wrong in the society and they had to reexamine themselves. Friedman asked the question, after two decades of women under a status quo situation, “If women could successfully hold jobs, why shouldn’t they?” This expose certainly created an impression on women, and after assessing their happiness, pursued work outside home. Friedman certainly had affected a change in the society because her work initiated the modern women’s movement that sought social and political reforms, to do away with discriminations in the workplace, to eliminate entry to education and women’s entry in politics. Friedan herself helped found the organization for women in 1966 that today still fights for equality for women. Conclusion . Betty Friedman used her writings to stir the imagination of women towards a better life than staying at home to become a mother and a housewife. Thru her writings, she mounted great pressures backed up by the government, society and the economy that are all against her principles and theories. She tried to wake up a sleeping giant inside the multitude of women who seemed to be happy about domesticity. Her research proved her correct that not all women are happy with their life, and there is a problem that could not be spelled out instantly. Betty Friedman’s attitude about women’s happiness had helped framed out women’s rights being enjoyed today. Thus, in this study, we conclude that desire of Betty Friedman to bring rightful change to women’s rights, had moved mountains of obstacles that were the characteristics of brave women during her time. She was scorned and mocked due to her insistence, but eventually what she fought for had affected the society’s outlook toward women. Work Cited Reed, Evelyn. A study of the Feminine Mystique. International Socialist Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, No. 166, Winter 1964, pp. 24-27; 27 September 2010 Read More