When Betty Friedan was born, less than 15% of Americans worked as white collar professionals and less than 15% went to college.
Only the wealthiest Americans could afford to send children to college or prepare them for professional careers.
But, as Americans became more and more affluent, more and more Americans became white collar, and more and more Americans could afford to send their kids to college.
The wealthy Friedans sent their pampered daughter to prestigious Smith college and after she graduated she went on to graduate study at Berkeley. Then she went to work as a journalist.
She was hardly the first little rich girl to go to college or graduate school or have a professional career.
My mother, who is not much younger than Friedan and who grew up poor in a one-parent household, put herself through college and accomplished everything she has in life (a 40+ year professional career, a happy 40+ year marriage and raising four children) without buying into this "women are oppressed" garbage. My mother was running a wing of a hospital before Betty Friedan published her first book.
You are selling a tired leftist myth.
Friedan was an ugly, spoiled, man-hating, child-hating, America-hating, self-proclaimed Marxist/Leninist troll.
Friedan's goal in life was to make as many women as possible as maladjusted and unhappy as she was.
Good for your mother. You are selling a tired leftist myth.
Number one, I'm not leftist at all. Nor am I a conservative. I'm a libertarian.
Number two, you're assuming, from a few comments of mine, that I am somehow totally in agreement with Friedan. I'm not.
It is true, however, that in a lot of families, the female children were discouraged from getting an education, or as much of an education, as the males were.
The mother of a high-school girlfriend of mine prohibited her from even being in the marching band because it was somehow "unfeminine," according to her (Orthodox or Conservative) Jewish mother. And even though her father was a lawyer and could have well afforded to pay her way through undergrad school and law school, he totally refused. She had to work her way through both university and law school. She became a city attorney and they are now proud of her, but she had to do it all herself.
However, when the baby of the family, her youngest, extremely spoiled brother, wanted to go to law school, the family paid his way 100%. And he lived at home and mommy did his laundry for him.
Does that qualify as oppression? Probably not... but the difference in treatment between siblings would have made me puke.
Friedan was an ugly, spoiled, man-hating, child-hating, America-hating, self-proclaimed Marxist/Leninist troll. Yeah, yeah, what a tired old line you a$$holes keep dragging out. Because she wasn't attractive, that somehow invalidates everything that ever came out of her mouth.
Friedan's goal in life was to make as many women as possible as maladjusted and unhappy as she was.
I agree that she was misguided as h*ll. But having a goal to make as many other women as possible unhappy? That's a a big stretch, and qualifies as sheer bullsh*t, in my opinion.