Feminist Revolutionary Friedan Ignites Controversy Author Questions Whether Women's Rights Movement Still Exists in America

Author: Deborah Jones Features Editor

"What feminist movement?" Betty Friedan, famed women's rights activist of the 1960s and 70s struck a nerve in the Middlebury community yesterday afternoon when, in a question and answer forum in Dana Auditorium, she suggested that a cohesive feminist agenda is lacking in the United States of America today.

The author of the 1963 book "The Feminine Mystique" is often credited with starting the revolution that redefined gender roles in the modern world. The success of her work as a journalist and author resulted in her quickly becoming the voice a new women's movement. She represented the many intelligent, energetic women who, although pleased by their family lives, found themselves feeling trapped by the domestic world that society felt was their proper sphere.

Her words spurred the development of the feminist movement that encouraged higher education for women, brought them into the work place and ensured their reproductive rights. Friedan was also a founder of the National Organization for Women, a vocal political activist and was named Humanist of the Year in 1975.

However, the feminist movement in the United States has changed markedly in the recent past. Today's college students have never known a world with limited educational opportunities for females or a society without birth control pills and abortion rights. "Women of my generation…maintain a certain amount of vigilance," Friedan noted, adding that many younger females take the rights that their mothers fought for during the revolutionary equal rights efforts of the 1960s and 70s for granted.

Many of the young people in the audience voiced a different perspective on the matter. "The feminist movement hasn't died," stated one female Middlebury student. "It's just been transformed to include [issues of] gay and lesbian rights…as well as rape awareness." The latter issue is certainly on the minds of members of Feminist Action at Middlebury, who just completed their observance of Domestic Violence Awareness month and are working to encourage the administration to install blue security lights and phones alone many of the College's dark walkways and parking lots.

Nevertheless, a number of pupils said that the feminism of Friedan's day was that of white, middle class homemakers, while in this post-modern era, women's rights activists are more apt to talk of the concerns of females of color, the poor and lesbians.

"I think feminism today is much more aware of differences than it was 20 years ago," said Rebecca Adams '03, a Women and Gender Studies joint major. "The issues that the white middle class was fighting for were for the most part realized…so the women's movement was able to step back and ask which voices they weren't hearing."

While Friedan certainly did not criticize the diverse foci of feminists today, she lamented the lack of the unified agendas that dominated the feminist movement of years past.

"Evolved is the right word because [women's rights activism] is not over…We're in the middle of everything right now," she explained. Friedan went on to delineate several of the initiatives that she would like to see feminists continue to fight for including stressing that women who work outside the home can still be wonderful mothers, pushing for equivalent wages for males and females and calling for a national childcare program.

She also discussed goals for women on an individual level. "They need to affirm their own strength…[and not continue] beating themselves down to be feminine." However, she also stressed that in doing so, women should be certain not to oppress their own identity and femininity in an effort to move into the traditional masculine sphere and its definition of success. "The end result is not for women to be like men but to create their own experience," Friedan continued.

When asked what exactly the female experience and interpretation of success might consist of, she skirted concrete answers. "It's fuzzy. I don't think that every woman would define [success] the same way. Now I'm not retreating from feminism, but for a lot of women, success still has to do with family…at least that's my definition."

The chorus of whispers that followed this statement indicated that this last remark by such a noted women's rights activist caught much of the audience by surprise. Indeed, many students had been asking questions about contemporary issues concerning them that Friedan, whose "The Feminine Mystique" was based primarily on her own observations of the unhappy state of her fellow all-American housewives, hadn't focused on in her career.

Eliza Adler '04.5, a Women and Gender Studies major, attributed much of the quizzical atmosphere to a generation gap. "She wasn't discrediting the feminist movement today but just talking about what she knows about…Gender issues aren't just stable things; they're always changing. And people need to realize that."

Adler also reiterated the importance of recognizing the accomplishments of early leaders in the feminist movement. "If [Friedan] hadn't raised the questions she had in her generation, then we wouldn't be able to raise the questions that we have now about women and sexuality and gender as a whole…I thought it was amazing just to see her, someone who influenced the lives of so many people whether it be now or a generation ago."