about feminism
...women achieving equality, but it is more about women intellectually being free to choose the path they prefer. Ursula Le Guin has described feminism as opening doors for women to step through. In the Feminist Mystique, Friedan although she is wary of using the term “feminism,” describes the idea of feminism as the opportunity for a woman to find the function in society that fulfills her own identity. She speaks about women being able to define themselves by the values and qualities that they possess and not by the qualities of their husbands. She might ask, “Why can’t women have it all?” (all being defined as a family and a career) and then she would answer that question by saying that they can but they don’t have to. Feminism is not about having or not having babies. It is not about working or staying home with the kids. It is definitely not about being able to carry as heavy an object as a man can. It is about choices. A true feminist does not hate men, but respects them and expects them to respect her. She expects to be given the same chances that a man is given, and she expects to be successful in whatever she chooses because she is capable and not just because she is female. A milestone in the rise of modern feminism in the USA was the "Feminine Mistique", published in 1963 by Betty Friedan, an American. She attacked for Women, and was influential in lobbying for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Other women's organizations proliferated immediately thereafter. The growing feminist movement sought not only to achieve gr...