Feminism… Thoughts! 0.4

The first-wave feminists and the women of colour were able to achieve a number of little wins toward women’s rights along the way as they sought their goals. For example, in 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. That same year, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, even though New York state law prohibited the distribution of contraception. She later established the clinic that became Planned Parenthood. Nonetheless, first-wave feminists had to wait until August of 1920 to witness the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Alas, due to racial discrimination, it was going to take much longer for women of colour to exercise their right to vote.

A decade later, “The Second Sex” was published in the United States, American feminist writer Betty Friedan helped ignite the second feminist wave with her book “The Feminine Mystique.” Released in 1963, Friedan builds on the foundation of Simone de Beauvoir’s work.

However, Friedan not only employed philosophical thought to discuss feminism, she also contained oral histories and her personal experiences to address the issues many women were facing. Friedan started by researching the role of women in her society to see if other women shared her feelings of discontent and despondency as housewives. To her surprise, she was not alone, and her interviews became the source material for her first book.

In the mid-1950s, Friedan found herself as a stay-home mom after a long career as a journalist, writer, and activist. When she got married and had children, Friedan left her career and moved to the suburbs with her family. Although she did freelance jobs, she soon realized that she was unhappy solely as a housewife. Nonetheless, she felt the societal pressure to find ultimate happiness as a mother and a homemaker. In 1957 at her 15-year Smith College reunion, Friedan surveyed her classmates and found that they also were unhappy being restricted to the home.

For the next five years, Friedan conducted interviews with white middle-class women who were tussling with their roles as housewives.

She published her findings in “The Feminine Mystique,” and instantly became a household name. In her book, she criticized the separate sphere of motherhood and homemaking that women were relegated to. In contrast, men were allowed to flourish in the male sphere of work, politics, and power. Friedan’s book encouraged women to step outside of their “sphere,” and fight gender oppression, which she termed “the problem that has no name.”