The Feminine Mystique And The Paradox Of Change - American Women In Essay

The Feminine Mystique And The Paradox Of Change - American Women In The 20th Century - Essay Example As a result of the survey, Friedan formed the view that women were victims of an erroneous contention that their fulfillment in life could only be achieved â€Å"through their husbands and children†¦such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family† (Friedan 227-268). In contrast to William Chafe, Betty Friedan confines her observations mainly to the period immediately following World War II and to a single group: â€Å"white middle-class suburban communities†¦[and] that men returning from war turned to their wives for mothering† (Friedan 79-123). Friedan draws copiously on her own experiences and â€Å"remembers her own decision to conform to society’s expectations by giving up her promising career to raise children and found that other young women still struggle with this decision† William H. Chafe Chafe’s method of dealing with the development of American women’s position in the 20th century is to consider how women - in regard to both their social and economic status – underwent a series of changes. In order to achieve this, he took as his central theme the factors underlying women’s inequality and evaluated it in terms of their â€Å"political involvement in public life and their economic progress† (Chafe 21; Otero-Cleves 1). By considering how the role of women in the 20th century had developed, he was able to offer the suggestion. â€Å"The assumption that women constituted a separate and inferior category ended up by pervading both the assignment of women personnel and the salaries they were paid†.