History of Feminism

Betty Friedan's chapter from "Feminine Mystique" was really interesting to me. It reminded me strongly of the movie Revolutionary Road. In the movie, Kate Winslet's character is suffering from this undefinable "problem" but her husband is caught up in his working life and refuses to see her unhappiness. The movie is set in the mid-1950s and focuses on the lives of a married couple in a Connecticut suburb. Kate's character, April, and her husband Frank have dreams to take their two children and move to Europe. What April soon discovers is that the dreams are not quite as mutual as she had hoped. She becomes pregnant again, and it extremely unhappy with the event. Throughtout the movie, April is constantly underappreciated and not taken seriously by her husband Frank. It reflects the times, and how women were supposed to play a certain role. When April steps out of her role, her husband is at first okay with it. When he talks to co-workers though about things his wife has said, they seem to think that he should be able to tell her no for any reason. Frank is supposed to be the "Man of the House," setting the rules and expecting his wife and children to follow them. The inner workings of her unhappiness and dissatisfaction are examined, and I think it really shows a good portrayal of what we have been discussing this week. Here are two clips from that movie:






Aside from this connection to the movie, I was also reminded of things from my family history. I have three sets of grandparents because my mother's parents were both divorced and remarried before I was born. My grandma Jackie has talked before about how hard it was to be a single, divorced woman in the 1960s and 70s. Based on what we read in "A Day Without Feminism," I cannot even begin to fathom how difficult it must have been to do anything as a single woman. Husbands were basically a requirement for everything - getting a home, a bank account, a job in some cases. It is amazing that this was only 30 years ago.

As a woman who does not see myself rushing to get married anytime soon, and who honestly does not feel a desire to have children, I feel as though I should not take for granted the giant leaps that women before me have made. If things were still the way they had been, I would likely be living the unhappy, incomplete life of a 1950s suburban housewife. Don't get me wrong, some women still desire to be housewives and that is fine. There are just so many more opportunities now that I don't understand why anyone would sell themselves short of an education and a chance to go out into the working world. I found it interesting that the Friedan article said psychiatrists reported unmarried women to be happier than married women. All after those married women had strived their wholes lives to be that way. Now that women's lives no longer revolve around the kitchen, I am grateful for the opportunities that I have available to me. I am not in college to find a man, rather I am here to find myself. The feminist movements of the past have allowed this for me and all American women.