Throughout the texts from this week the one important major theme that has been brought up several times is the male supremacy and male individualism. How women were supposed to just rely on them for anything that was considered hard or too manly for a woman. After reading/analyzing a few of the many readings provided. According to Redstockings, all men oppress all women as a class, and this is the responsibility of men that they need to give up male supremacy rather than the responsibility of women to change themselves. Of course the timeline of these events took place during the 1970’s which was a time where women struggled to be their own individual. This manifesto and this time period where women were oppressed really reminds me of the book by Betty Fredan; The Feminine Mystique, where it not only talks about the “occupation” women had but the life they could not have during the 1960’s till 80’s. A quote from the book I would like to share and bring to light is, “Women’s political job is to ‘inspire in her home a vision of the meaning of life and freedom . . . to help her husband find values that will give purpose to his specialized daily chores’ . . .” This just proves to show that a woman’s occupation during the 20th century was staying at home being a housewife, having as many children as she can have, raising those children, and helping her husband stimulate unique ideas for his work.
