Project: Betty Friedan: The Personal Is Political[1]
[Overview] [Explanation] [Chapters 1 – 3] [Chapters 4- 6] [Chapters 7-9][Topics for Final Essay]
This project required that you read the biography Betty Friedan: The Political Is Personal.
(ISBN 0-321-39388-0). You have two options to purchase
this book.
The assignments for this project will divided into three parts and
be included in the assignments for Learning Modules 1, 2, & 3.
This project is worth 104 points:
Biographical
Profiles of Betty Friedan:
Access this link if you do not know about Betty Friedan and her contributions
to the women’s movement.
Explanation of
Online Discussions
Online Discussion of Study Questions: Submissions to the online
discussions must be completed during the specific time period. No exceptions
Purpose: To examine major themes in Freidan's
personal and public life. In a
discussion, you can offer your ideas and thoughts, as well as learn from your
classmates. The content of these discussions
will be valuable for writing the two personal reflections and the final
essay.
Timing:
Due Date – Comments in the Discussion: October 5
Assessment: 6 points per chapter; 54 points total
Preparing for the Online Discussions
Learning Module 1:
Chapters 1-3
Betty Friedan was not
born a feminist; neither were her parents or close friends. Yet, her
experiences as a child, adolescent, college student, and young adult shaped her
political perspective and her advocacy for social justice.
Therefore, the objective for this assignment is to
identify, describe and evaluate specific experiences or events in
Friedan's personal life that caused her to become an advocate for those
who were marginalized by mainstream American society and for political actions
that led to social justice and protection of individual choice.
Chapter One: Through a Glass Darkly: Select one the
following questions:
Chapter 2: Exploring the Life of the Mind: Select one of
the following questions:
Chapter
3: Working for the Revolution: Select one of the following questions:
1.
At Federated Press, Betty focused on issues facing women as workers,
housewives, and consumers. How did she address these issues in “Pretty
Posters Won’t Stop Turnover of Women in Industry?” Provide two specific examples
from the contents of the article, paying particular attention to the interview
with Ruth Young.
2.
“UE Fights for Women Workers” represents Betty’s strongest argument for women
workers. What examples do you find to be most persuasive? Review
the list of demands in “UE’s Program for Women.” Are there any points
that would be relevant to a women’s rights movement? Are there any points that
are still relevant today?
Learning Module 2: Chapters 4, 5, and 6.
Chapter 4: Homeward
Bound
1. As
a high school senior, Betty had decided she wanted to be married, have
children, and have an “absorbing interest” outside the home that brought her
“success and fame.” How did she achieve these objectives in the late 1940s and
early 1950s? What challenges did she face when she tried to combine her
role as a wife and mother and her decision to have a career as a freelance
writer?
2.
In what ways was Friedan not a typical suburban housewife living in Rockland
County? Consider her work as a freelance writer and founder and director
of the Intellectual Resources Pool.
Chapter 5: Defrocking
the Myth
1. In
the last two chapters of The Feminine Mystique, Friedan offers solutions to the
“problem that has no name.” How feasible is Friedan’s “New Life Plan for Women”
for a young woman living in suburbia who had two or three small children?
What kind of support systems would she need to engage in Friedan’s “New Life
Plan for Women”?
2. Although critics and
feminists argue that The Feminine Mystique is limited to the experiences of
white middle-class women living in suburbia, Freidan’s book was a key factor
that led to the second-wave feminist movement and inspired many to become
feminist activists. What are some of the reasons cited in the chapter
that account for the book’s impact? For example, would Friedan’s “New Life
Plan for Women” appeal to working-class women and women of color? Is
Friedan’s plan relevant and/or still needed today?
Chapter 6: Reluctant Heroines
Learning Module 3: Chapters 7 - 9
Chapter 7: The Unfinished
Revolution
Chapter 8: Transcending
Polarities
1. Evaluate
the ways that Friedan lobbied for a woman's’ right to a legal abortion from
1968 to 1973. In her comments at the first meeting of NARAL, how did she
connect a woman’s right to choose and a person’s inalienable right to personal
liberty? How did Roe v. Wade immediately affect the lives of
women?
2. Much to
Friedan's credit, the U.S. Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment in
1972, and by 1973, 30 states had ratified it. Yet the ERA had significant
opposition from Phyllis Schlafly. Evaluate the assumptions and actions of
Schlafly about women’s rights and women’s role in American society. Why
did Schlafly oppose feminism? Who were her supporters? In what ways
did she attach NOW?
Chapter 9: New Feminist
Frontiers
1. In
The Second Stage, Friedan presents
the family as the “new feminist frontier.” What are her assumptions and
her argument? How is Friedan's concept of
a new feminist frontier consistent with her assumptions and solution in The
Feminine Mystique, Now’s Statement of Purpose, and the Women’s Bill of Rights?
2. Friedan
continued to pursue her interest in the family as the new feminist frontier at
the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and in The New Paradigm
Project. In what ways does each of these projects correspond to her
previous writings and her feminist ideas? How relevant are the issues
discussed within each of these project today?
This
topic requires that you make
connections between specific experiences of Friedan’s life as a child,
adolescent and young adult (Chapters 1-4) with her actions as a feminist and
political activist. Therefore, you must select specific actions that Friedan
took beginning with the publication of The
Feminine Mystique and ending with her work on the ERA, aging, and The
Paradigm Project (Chapters 5 – 9). To begin, you should select three
specific examples from the first four chapters that shaped Friedan’s
perspective. One example might be her
interaction with her parents; another might be her experiences as a labor
journalist. Then you need to think about
Friedan’s approach to women’s rights:
how might her interaction with her parents shaped her approach to
women’s equality and equity? And what
was the specific action she took, e.g. a founder of NOW.
Do
not fall into the trap of writing a short biographical profile of Friedan. Rather spend time selecting and thinking
about the examples you select. Then weave these into a meaningful, clear exam
essay.
In
this essay, you will need to evaluate two to three key ideas or actions of
Friedan and then consider if these still have meaning. You can select from all three categories, or
you can write an essay that has an analysis of two to three actions be Friedan
in one of the three categories. The relevant chapters for this essay are
Chapters 5 – 9.
Students who write on this
topic will need to demonstrate that Friedan believed that men would gain
equally by her approach to women’s rights.
To make this case requires precise examples from her writing and speeches. Such ideas are implied in TFM, but Friedan
expanded and advanced these ideas in her concept of the Fourth Dimension. Her ideas became more concrete in the 1970s
--- examples include her definition of sexism, her teaching at various
universities and colleges in the 1970s, the fundamental assumptions and
arguments in The Second Stage, her concept that the new feminist frontier is
the family in the 1980s, and her work on The New Paradigm Project. She spoke and wrote about this concept, most
especially from the mid-1970s to the early years of 2000. I can offer some examples of speeches to
those who will write on this topic. Chapters 6 – 9 are the relevant chapters in
the biography. As a side-note, you might find it useful to think about why she
believed that men gain in this unfinished revolution. For this, you could consider her experiences
of the relationship between her father and mother.
Created by Susan Oliver, History Lives
soliver@cerritos.edu