Feminist TheoristsBETTY FRIEDAN, GLORIA STEINEM, NAOMI WOLF, SUSAN B. ANTHONY

Feminist Theory

Analyses the status of women and men in society with the purpose of using that knowledge to better women’s lives

MANY types of feminist theories: Liberal, Cultural, radical, conservative, Marxist, Bourgeois, socialist, anti-racist,etc.

A feminist is defined as anyone who believes in the political, social, and economic equality of the sexes

Began in Western Europe in the 1400s, The U.S. in the 1850s, and in Canada in the early to mid 1800s.

Betty Friedan Childhood/Post-Secondary

February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006

Born in Peona, Illinois

Betty Friedan’s parents were both Jewish

Betty Friedan’s father was a jeweler and her mother had to give up her job on a newspaper when she was married

Her mother always urged Betty to pursue a career in journalism, because her mother was never able to achieve that

Betty went to Smith college and excelled, graduating in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology

She was given a fellowship to study at the University of California, Berkeley

Betty Friedan Adult Life/ Prominent Works

She went to New York where she worked as a reporter for a short time

In 1947 Betty married Carl Friedan and they had three children together

Their children were born in 1948, 1952, and 1956 respectively

She surveyed graduates of Smith College and from the results of that published her first novel “The Feminine Mystique”

The Feminine Mystique encourages women to seek new opportunities for themselves

Betty has also had many other published works such as The Second Stage, The Fountain of Age, and It Changed My Life

Betty Friedan Fact/Theories

Friedan led a parade of over 10,000 people for a women’s strike for equality. It took place in New York City

Friedan is Pro-choice, believed that women should be more than just homemakers, and she also wanted women to have a greater role in the political process.

Her book “The Feminine Mystique” is credited with beginning second wave feminism in the United States

She was a liberal and bourgeois feminist

Liberal feminism focuses on a woman’s ability to maintain their equality through their own actions and choices

Bourgeois feminism is upper-middle class feminism who experience discrimination based on their sex and not on their class

Betty Friedan Changing Perspectives

She is called “The Mother of the Modern Woman’s liberation movement”

The Feminine Mystique has been called one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century

Friedan reawakened the feminist movement in the USA

That movement helped women gain the right to vote in the 1920s

Gloria Steinem Childhood/ Post- Secondary

Born on March 25th, 1934 (age 81) in Toledo, Ohio

American

Gloria didn’t go to school until she was ten. Her mother, Ruth, taught her at home

Her father, Leo, left the family in 1944 and her sister Susan went to Smith college

Gloria's mom suffered from depression and Gloria had to take care of her

It was a rough childhood, although she managed to go to Smith College and major in government

Gloria Steinem Adult life/ Prominent Works

She was a social activist, writer, editor and lecture

A breast cancer survivor, celebrated her 75th birthday in 2009

At graduation in 1956, she was engaged but broke the engagement and then found she was pregnant

She wont a fellowship to study in India for two years and didn't want to make the same mistake as her mother so she got an abortion done

Gloria was very upset but she knew that was the right thing for her

In the 1960’s-70’s headline became known as “second-wave feminism”.

Worked for New York magazine, also co-founded Ms. Magazinea publication dedicated to women's rights concerns

Co-founded the Women's Media Center in 2004

She wrote for Indian publications

Gloria Steinem Fact/ Theories

While she was in College she discovered the reason for her moms depression

Abortion: Steinem is a pro choice. She had an abortion herself in London at the age of 22. In 1969 she covered an abortion speak out for New York Magazine. She felt what she called a “big click” at the speak-out

Steinem wrote the article on female genital mutilation that brought it into the American publics consciousness; the article was called “ the international crime of female genital mutilation,” and it was published in the march 1979 issue of Ms. Magazine

Pornography: lots of tensions come in where one person is dominating the other

Gloria Steinem Changing Perspectives

Gloria Steinem got a abortion at the age 22 and that made her talk about her experiences

She became strong and passionate about her experience that she speaked out about it

Gloria Steinem speaks out about Miley Cyrus, and ends the debate forever

She states that its not the people it is the religion and culture where we get it from

Naomi Wolf Childhood/ Post-Secondary

November 12, 1962

America

She was born in San Francisco to a Jewish family. Deborah Gleeman an author of the book “ The Lesbian Community” and anthropologist is her mother

Leonard wolf, a Romanian born gothic horror scholar is her father

In high school she debated in regional speech tournaments as a member of the Howell forensic society

She then attended Yale University where in 1984-1987, she was a Rhodes scholar at New College Oxford

Naomi Wolf Adult Life/Prominent Works

In 2004, wolf reported alleged incident of “sexual enrochment” by professor Harold Bloom she had experienced when she was a Yale undergraduate working on poetry with Bloom

Frustrated in her efforts to gain satisfaction that the university would take such an incident seriously, Wolf made her complaint public

Wolf was married to journalist David Shipley

They have two children, Rosa and Joseph

They split in 2005

She became an author and was at one point a political consultant

She wrote 7 books, one of the theme became the bestselling book in 1991

Later she published another bestseller called the end of America (2007)

Wolf is also a leading spokeswomen of what she later described as the third wave of the feminist movement

Naomi Wolf Fact/ Theory

In 200, Wolf published “ the Treehouse: eccentric wisdom from my father on how to love, and see” which chronicled her midlife crisis attempt to reclaim her creative and poetic vision and revalue her fathers love, and her fathers force as an artist and a teacher

She argued that abortion should be legal by saying that sometimes it’s even necessary

“Sometimes the mother most be able to decide that the fetus in its full humanity must die”

She talks about the frequent assumption that if women held the decision making power in society, they would be kinder and gentler devised by George Bush to appeal to the female vote in 1998

Susan Brownwell Anthony

February 15, 1820 – March 19, 1906.

American (Born in Adams, Massachssetts)

Susan came from a family of activists, her brothers Daniel and Merritt and her father were anti-slavery, and her sister Mary was a Women’s rights activist as well.

When Susan was 17 she was sent to a Quaker boarding school but dropped out after 1 term due to her family losing their money in the panic of 1837

She had no post-secondary education

Susan B. Anthony Adult Life and Published Works

Started to stray away from her quaker traditions

Voted illegally in 1872 (illegal because she was a woman) was arrested and given a $100 fine.

Lobbied, spoke publicly, petitioned, etc. in order to give women the rights to vote, right to own property, equal pay, women’s unions, and more.

Created and produced “The Revolution”, a weekly newspaper in 1868.

The newspapers motto was “Men, their rights and nothing more; Women, their rights and nothing less.”

Published several volumes of “History of Women’s Suffrage”

Susan B. Anthony Fact Theories and Changing Perspectives The first woman to be depicted on a 1979 dollar coin

Susan Anthony was anti-slavery, fought for education for women and for black people, advocated for equal pay between the sexes, encouraged women’s work unions, campaigned for stronger liquor laws, and was a suffragette

Susan constantly spoke out publicly to gain support for the suffragist movement

The U.S. finally got the Susan B. Anthony amendment/The nineteenth amendment, 14 years after she died granting adult American women the right to vote

Spoke publicly and campaigned for women’s property rights in New York

Bibliography

“Betty Friedan.” Bio. A&E Television Networks. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

“Betty Friedan.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Apr. 2015

“Betty Friedan.” Learningenglish.voanews. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

“Liberal Feminism.” Wikipedia. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

“Biography of Susan B. Anthony.” SusanBAnthony.org. 2013. Web. April 21 2015.

“Susan B. Anthony.” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

Group Members:

By Norman, Shaneeza, Comfort and Harpreet