Conference turris::womannotes-v2

981.0. "Article :Mixed Legacy of Women's Liberation" by SA1794::CHARBONND (What a pitcher!) Fri Feb 09 1990 09:09

(Mods feel free to move this if a better home found)
    
    Did anybody else read this article ?

From an article in 'U.S. News & World Report', Feb. 12, 1990
page 61, titled "The Mixed Legacy of Women's Liberation".
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"Almost three decades after the birth of modern feminism,
growing numbers of American women are suffering from a
severe case of unfulfilled expectations. They have watched
the bright promise of the '60's turn into the harsh reality
of the '80's, leaving them not so much with new opportunities
as with new responsibilities piled atop the old ones. Yet a 
look at women's history suggests that such periods of
disillusionment often contain the seeds for the next stage 
of social change."

""The women's movement made new opportunities available, but when
women work 40 to 80 hours a week on the job in addition to
working at home, then life is much more difficult," notes 
Betty Friedan, whose book _The Feminine Mystique_ served as
a catalyst for the women's movement."

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A great deal of historical perspective follows. The gist of
the article is that the women's movement seems to run in
a cycle, first making political gains, then consolidating
those gains, seeking personal solutions to the new problems 
and limits brought on by those gains, dissatisfaction with
the new status quo, and finally a new round of activism.
The article concludes that the next round of activism is 
starting, or soon to start, based on the limitations of the
gains already made. Good reading.