Betty McCollum

Betty Friedan, a Feminist Leader Betty Friedan was a women’s rights activist and author in the 20th century. One of her most influential books was The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. The Feminine Mystique, and Friedan’s other books, drew national attention to the unhappiness of women with their traditional role in society. Betty Friedan changed the American way of life by reviving the feminist movement through writing books and founding organizations which still aid women today. Betty…

Published in 1963, Betty amplifies the voice of hundreds of thousands of married women, unsatisfied with what roles they are pressured to play, which was dubbed: “The problem that has no name”. This problem represents a widespread unhappiness of women in marriages. A problem that is powerful enough to relate to women from many time periods and places. Betty writes, “Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped…

during the 1960s. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote. From 1920 to the Sixties, even to the present day, women have continuously fought for gender equality. For example, The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, is about how women are dissatisfied with their lives due to their dependence on their husbands for financial, emotional, and intellectual support.1 Friedan is making the point that because of gender inequality in America, women are…

war, to take over the jobs in construction and manufacturing. However, when the men came back women were fired instantly to give those jobs back to their male counterparts. This lead to a woman’s place being considered the home instead a work force. Betty Friedan, author of the “Feminine Mystique,” believed woman wanted and needed more out of life, which is accurate; life can’t be fulfilling if society tells you your ambition is cooking, cleaning, and caring for…

Throughout history, society has shaped the lives of individuals by assigning individuals a specific way to be a part of society while deviation is most likely viewed as unacceptable and censured. Betty Friedan in chapter 1 of her novel “The Feminine Mystique” describes society’s assigned role for women and how women sacrificed their desires to fulfil this role and assimilate into society. E.J Graff in his essay “The M/F Boxes” describes how transgendered and intersex individuals suffer…

Alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. So, are we wrong to watch someone hurt themselves, but do nothing to help and add to their demise? Or are we right to ridicule them for hurting others to try and help them? Neither one is easy, but deciding which one we should attempt is the difficult choice we must make. We can all admit to doing both, I’m sure. In the past nineteen years, I’ve had a…

A quick glance into Joan Didion’s life would put readers under the assumption that she identifies as a standard second-wave feminist. A prominent female writer in the 1960s, Didion had initially left me drawing connections to the likes of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Even her stern gaze present on book covers and articles seems to give off a sense of feminine mystique. But after careful venture into her work, it is my understanding that while feminism plays a role in what Didion tackles as…

Malcolm had a troubling life that had its struggles and would get better along the way. Malcolm was a hard-working men who wanted to fight for his rights and get what he needed to survive in this world. Although Malcolm was not able to do this on his own if it wasn’t for the women in his life. Women in his life would help in a tremendous way and would also help him stronger mentally as well. Women would in Malcolm’s life would play a major role and have a significant impact on his life. The…

The women’s movement of the 1960s was a movement that should have happened a long time ago. Women have been excluded from the government since the beginning of America even though they were just as important as men were to certain events, like abolition or prohibition. Women are central to society and should have been treated as such from the beginning. The movement took decades to be included in mainstream culture. When it finally was being talked about, the movement accomplished many goals…

The Feminine Mystique is a novel written by Betty Friedan analyzing the sadness and depression many American women felt during the 1950’s. Friedan’s research describes the subservient conditions women experienced and labels their mutual disappointment as “the problem with no name.”1 Friedan defines feminine mystique as women’s limited potential through society’s idealized image of the housewife occupation. Linking the unhappiness and emptiness women felt to both social and internal conflict…