Feminism Both Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schlafly Term Paper

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Feminism

Both Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schlafly affirm physical and psychological differences between men and women in their respective works The Feminine Mystique and The Power of the Positive Woman. Neither author proposes that women should strive to be more like men; in fact, both praise the differences between the genders and propose a feminism that affirms, rather than denies, these differences. Friedan calls the triats unique to being female "the feminine mystique," while Schlafly's "Positive Woman" embraces her identity as a female. Both look to social norms and psychological suppositions to support their points. For example, Friedan focuses specifically on her own experiences as a housewife to provide her feminist commentary. According to Friedan, women do not need so much to abandon their roles as wives and mothers so much as they need to rediscover identity and self-definition within those roles. Friedan does, however, claim that many of the differences between men and women are taught, not innate.

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In Chapter 5 of The Feminine Mystique, Friedan proposes that "Much of what Freud believed to be biological, instinctual, and changeless has been shown by modern research to be a result of specific cultural causes." However, Friedan was not denying the fundamental differences between men and women, differences that give rise to the "feminine mystique." In fact, Friedan lauds the differences between the "masculine" and "feminine" psyches, leanings, and lifestyles. She proposes that women need to embrace their femininity with pride and vigor in order to obtain liberation from the bonds of a patriarchal society.

Similarly, Phyllis Schlafly states, "women are different from men in dealing with the fundamentals of life itself." Not only do men and women differ in terms of their physical size and sexual organs, they also differ emotionally….....

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