historical perspective enlightening. My grandmother was pregnant with her third child in.
1949. Her work experience included: interior design and modeling women's clothes for.
the Sears catalog. I asked her to read the Friedan essay and let me know if she felt as.
moved as I was, and to share with me her experiences of sexism. Her immediate reaction.
was to point out that "Betty Friedan was a college educated woman and she had certain.
goals that never interested me." My grandmother, though growing up during a time.
when women had few social rights, said she didn't experience oppressive sexism in her.
life. However, when she describes her life accomplishments, I feel she has spent most of.
her life fulfilling the expected roles of women instead of pursuing goals that were mostly.
reserved for men. Unknowingly, her life was controlled by traditional, sexist values.
prevalent in her time and still prevalent in the nineties.
Twenty-four years after the above article from McCall's magazine was written, the.
Supreme Court decided whether women should have a right to an abortion in Roe v.
Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973)). I believe the decision was made in favor of women's rights.
mostly because the court made a progressive decision to consider the woman as a human.
who may be motivated by other things in life than just being a mother. Justice Blackmun.
delivered the following opinion:.
Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a.
distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent.
Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is.
also a distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted.
child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family.
already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it. In.
other cases, as in this one, the additional difficulties and.
continuing stigma of unwed motherhood may be involved. (See Endnote.
#2).
I feel the court decision of Roe v. Wade would not have been made in 1949.
