Essay on Feminist Issues: Betty Draper Analysis. Feminine Mystique and Gender Stratification.

1). Betty Draper

Betty Draper is present as a valuable informative tool for many people today. Having gone through The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan just lately, if a person explores the view point that Friedan makes use of in investigating ladies of the time, we can without trouble notice that Betty exists to serve as a depiction of a woman who endures a very difficult time as a house wife from the extremely serious issues of the feminine mystique throughout the '60s. Betty while sympathetic at the beginning, she progressively changes in the course of the video into a lady too bothersome and unkind to be pitied; much more than anybody else in the show, she gets to be virtually monstrous, especially in her later violent interactions with her little girl, Sally.

Betty is a casualty of the 60's, and she values physical attractiveness a lot. She was brought up in a way and was forced to believe that her value is only in appearance (It is not anything to think about when she punches her daughter when she cut her hair. Her mother would have responded in the same way). She is outstanding at beauty and ended up being "won" by Don Draper. She is a lady who was raised up to believe that if she could be an excellent model of femininity and natural beauty, life would certainly be easier for her. However, it failed to work out that way, and she is now angry about it and feels bluntly lied to. According to life in the 60's, women are expected to bring up kids, and adult men are supposed to provide to their families. Betty fails to perform 'her duties,' and as a result, she is branded a "monster" (Crompton, Rosemary, and Michael Mann). Donald could be unsuccessful at almost everything in his life, but due to the fact he's skilled and gifted, it is accepted; equally within the setting of Mad Men, and to the audience.

2). What I learned about Feminine Mystique and how it applies to gender stratification.

The Feminine Mystique is a misconception that womens purpose in the community is to be a housewife and mom nothing else. The Feminine Mystique is a manufactured concept of femininity which states that being career focused or satisfying ones personal potential in some way goes against the pre-ordained purpose of women in the society (Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs). The Feminine Mystique is the continuous barrage of homemaker, nurturer, mother figure that regards the role of house keeping and bringing up kids as important to a woman, castigating the ladies who wish to carry out 'masculine' duties, whether in conjunction with or instead of the mystique-approved responsibilities. There is gender stratification in the society depicted in the Feminine Mystique as it clearly advocates for a community with the unreasonable distribution of responsibilities, freedom, and power between the two genders.

Feminine Mystique compromised the famous belief that females during 1960's could only discover satisfaction by homemaking and childbearing activities; defined the challenges of American middle-class ladies and raised the concern about how women were being denied equality to men; stated that women were being held back from achieving their maximum human capabilities; elevated the modern day women's movement and for this reason everlastingly metamorphosed the societal fabric of all the countries all over the globe (Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs).

3). What has Not Changed Significantly

Professional obstacles is a form of gender stratification still experienced today. In most developed nations around the world, ladies are at a drawback whenever it comes to salaries and earnings. Men continue to dominate the greatest-paying career fields, and on average, ladies get just seventy seven-percent of what gentlemen earn for the same quantity of work (Alon, Sigal). At this pace, it could take an additional five decades for this gender stratification to vanish.

Bibliography

Alon, Sigal. "THE GENDER STRATIFICATION OF EMPLOYMENT HARDSHIP: QUEUING, OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC CYCLES." Research In Social Stratification And Mobility, vol 20, 2003, pp. 115-143. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/s0276-5624(03)20002-0.

Crompton, Rosemary, and Michael Mann. Gender And Stratification. Cambridge, CB, UK, Polity Press, 1994.

Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. "Revisiting the Feminine Mystique." Sociological Forum, vol 29, no. 3, 2014, pp. 763-768. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1111/socf.12117.