The Woman's Liberation Movement Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Womans Liberation Movement - Term Paper ExampleThe American culture expect women to keep the home. The television programs of the 1950s clearly demonstrate this reality. Prior to the 1960s and 1970s women were commonly vilified and thought of as egocentric if their personal ambitions did not hold back cooking meals, cleaning, caring for children, and being the obedient wife of their husbands. The idea of feminism was one of scorn and mockery during this time. It was also understood to be opposed to the staple tenets of Christianity. The efforts of numerous women such as Gloria Steinum, Ruth Rosen and Betty Friedan during the 1960 revitalized the womens movement and laid the foundation for changes in both public perception of feminism as well as the law for all time. Although the womens liberation movement is often understood as being of a uniform ideology it very is very diverse consisting basically of devil differing perspectives on feminist thought fundamentally divided by a ge and, radical and liberal. The significant achievement for the womens liberation movement that began in the 1960s was to give voice to very private matters such as domestic violence, date rape, workplace discrimination and inner harassment by forcing these subjects into the public debate thus instigating changes concerning both social attitudes and legislation. The changes began when President John F. Kennedy formed the Commission on the Status of Women in 1961. Betty Friedan, an candid feminist was part of this commission. In 1966 Friedan created the National Organization for Women (NOW), the first new feminist organization in nearly 50 years. NOW was the initial and frame the most recognized but it was only beginning of the organized expression of the womens movement. The (womens) movement actually has two origins, from two different stratas of society, with two different styles, orientations, values, and forms of organization (Freeman, 1971) These unaligned womens groups wer e thought of as separate in structure and motive throughout the 1960s but by 1970, these numerous groups slackly aligned by two uncommon composition and origin merged in the collective conscience of the American public under the familiar terminology of the womens liberation movement. The first faction which included NOW, the Professional Womens Caucus, the Federally Employed Women and the Womens Equity Action League, the self-described right-wing of the movement, whose demographic consisted by and large of older women than other groups formed during the 1960s. The older group consisted mainly of women who worked outside the home plus older homemakers who were sympathetic to the cause. The younger factions were generally college-aged young women who came from the well-behaved rights movement. The womens equality groups of the younger generation heard the words and witnessed the efforts of the older generation such as Betty Friedan, who wrote the very popular book, The Feminine Mys tique, who said A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, Who am I, and what do I want out of life? She mustnt feel selfish and mental case if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children (