Project: Betty Friedan: The Political Is Personal

Overview:

This project is worth 104 points and its assignments will part of the requirements for Learning Modules 2, 3 and 4.

It requires that you read the biography Betty Friedan: The Political Is Personal. (ISBN 0-321-39388-0) There are two options for purchase of this book:

• Option One: If you purchased a new textbook from the college bookstore, it was included.

• Option Two: If you did not purchase a new text from the bookstore, you will need to purchase the biography. The college bookstore has copies or you can purchase online from Amazon.com. The price is about $20.

Requirements for the Project: There are three requirements for this project: A Reading Log of Chapter Summaries, two reflections, and a Final Essay. These are explained below.

Reading Log of Chapter Summaries (54 points, 6 pts for each chapter):

• Part One (18 pts): Chapters 1 -3 – Due on September 30
  
  
• Part Two (18 pts.): Chapters 4 – 6. Due Date: TBD (Included in assignments for LM3)

• Part Three (18 pts.): Chapters 7 – 9. Due Date: TBD (Included in assignments for LM4)

Note: This reading log has two benefits. First, it requires that you think about key issues events, experiences and/or issues in each of the chapters. Second, this log, if done with care, will provide the information you will need to write your final essay.

Two Personal Reflections (10 points for each): these will be part of the exam requirements for Learning Module 2 and 3. Like the reading log, these reflections will cause you to synthesize important points about Friedan’s life and actions.

Final Essay (30 points): This will be due the last week of class. You will have a choice among a range of topics, each of which will require that you use specific ideas or themes from the Friedan biography. The list of topics will be provided in late November.

Biographical Profiles of Betty Friedan: If you are not aware of Friedan’s work and impact on the modern women’s movement (1960 – 1980), access this link.

Biographical Profiles

Part One – Reading Log for 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 experiences that caused her to become an advocate for individuals who suffered discrimination and to engage in liberal reform efforts to end this discrimination.

Requirements:

• The reading log must be in a notebook. It can be hand written or typed.
  
  
• You are required to answer one question for each of the chapters. The questions are shown below.
  
  
• Review the questions, read the chapter, and then select the question that you find to be the more important and/or most insightful.
  
  
• Your written answers to the selected questions should identify, explain and evaluate two to three examples. The focus of these examples should be how Friedan’s personal experiences caused her to better understand discrimination and inequality in American society as well as possible ways to advocate for change.

Key ideas:

• discrimination and exclusion because of gender, race, ethnicity, social class
• assigned roles” of men and women in society;
• the connection between education and self-reliance and self-confidence;
• the value and shortcomings of marriage and children for women
• Ideas and actions of those involved with radical politics in the 1930s and 1940s, e.g. the student movement and workers in labor unions.

Chapter Study Questions: The objective for this assignment is to identify, describe and evaluate specific experiences or events in Friedan’s personal experiences 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. The questions shown below give you examples. Do not merely answer these in your reading log. Instead think about the impact of the events and experiences on Friedan as a child, adolescent, and young adult. These questions, as well as others, are in biography (p. 167).

Chapter One: Through a Glass Darkly: Select one the following questions:

1. As an adult Friedan often referred to her experiences of not being asked to join a sorority in high school. Why did she think she was rejected? How did her parents counsel her? How did this experience change her attitude about herself? Why do you think she cited this experience so often once she had become a leader in the women’s movement?
   
   
2. In her high school autobiography, “Through the Glass Darkly,” Bettye wrote that her long-term goal was to “fall in love and be loved and be needed by someone: and “to have children.” And she wanted something more: “I want to do something with my life—to have an absorbing interest. I want success and fame.” What factors in her family life and her observations about her mother might have caused her to make this statement? Pay specific attention to her relationships and interactions with her mother and her father.

Chapter 2: Exploring the Life of the Mind: Select one of the following questions:

1. Describe how courses with James Gibson and Dorothy Wolff Douglas were especially significant to Betty’s learning experience at Smith College. In what ways did these courses help shape Freidan’s advocacy for women’s rights?
   
   
2. In her autobiography In Life So Far, Friedan writes that the lasting significance of her education at Smith College was that she had gained an “inescapable social conscience” and “an inescapable sense of political responsibility.” In what ways did she act n this responsibility in her final two years at Smith College? Describe two or three examples from her actions as editor of SCAN and SCM and/or her summer internship at Highlander Folk School.

Chapter 3: Working for the Revolution: Select one of the following questions

1. At Federated Press (FP), 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 one or two examples from the contents of this 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 the 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?