Topic 12 -Modern Daze

Required reading:
"Feminism Turns 30," Nicholas Lemann, Essay 40, Flyover
"Sounding the Alarm," Bruce Watson, Essay 41, Flyover
Women's Liberation . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
Sources of Discontent . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
Feminism Reborn . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
 Impact of the Women's Liberation Movement . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.

Quiz:

Feminism Turns 30

1. What is the main thesis within Betty Friedan's 1963 book?
A. women of the twentieth should return back to Victorian values
B. working class women must be included in the equal rights cause
C. middle-class women's lives were empty and meaningless
D. women of the world will unite in a solidarity movement

2. What label did Friedan attach to the issues that confronted her interview subjects and female friends?
A. The Problem that has No Name
B. The Empty Nest Syndrome
C. You can't spell misery without MRS
D. Father Knows Least

3. What is a key legacy of Friedan's importance?
A. she supported the position of standing by your man
B. she acknowledged that divorce brought prosperity
C. she envisioned the dominance of suburban soccer moms
4. she made the two-career couple the centerpiece of feminism


Sounding the Alarm

5. What in Rachel Carson's background helped give rise to her crusade?
A. she received the support and praise from President Kennedy
B. she grew up in the wilderness of western Pennsylvania
C. she was formally educated in biology and marine zoology
D. she had worked for Monsanto which produced pesticides

6. According to Rachel Carson and her supporters, what was the problem of DDT?
A. it killed indiscriminately
B. it was ineffective agbainst flies
C. it was too costly for poor nations
D. it worked only in rural areas

7. What disease did Rachel Carson battle (and ultimately succumb to) while researching her book Silent Spring?
A. polio
B. breast cancer
C. malaria
D. tuberculosis

8. What did Rachel Carson's critics accuse her of?
A. she was a mouthpiece for the Environmental Protection Agency
B. she benefitted from other competing chemicals of DDT
C. she worked covertly as an agent for the Soviet Union
D. she overstated her case and it was an emotional outburst

9. What has continued to develop chemical resistance to pesticides?
A. people
B. osprey
C. insects
D. fish

10. What best reflects Rachel Carson's philosophy?
A. those in positions of power will do the right thing
B. nature is resilient and immune to man's destructive ways
C. the interests of profit comes before the interests of nature
D. we are a part of nature not apart from it

From Mintz readings

11. What did the media, politicans and educators say was the path to fulfillment for women in the 1950s?
A. a career
B. following their interests in college
C. marrying and having children
D. staying at home to care for parents

12. What was the purpose of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?
A. making equal pay for equal work the law of the land
B. making it easier for women to reenter the work force after having children
C. making gender discrimination in hiring illegal
D. making parental leave laws more flexible

13. What was feeling described by many young women in surveys taken in the late '50s and early '60s?
A. they were happy in their roles as stay-at-home mothers and wives
B. they were often concerned about their household budgets in the face of inflation
C. they often wondered if there was more to life than what they were experiencing
D. they wanted to organize more carpools to take their children to school

14. What were some of the long-term effects of the feminist movement?
A. women have made impressive gains in the workforce and political worlds
B. women students are now the majority in most colleges and universities
C. women can more easily choose to join the workforce, raise a family or both
D. all of the above

15. What is the 'feminization of poverty'?
A. women raising a family alone are more likely to be poor than a single-parent household led by a man
B. women are more likely to be poor because they don't budget their money
C. because women are less likely to earn college degrees, they don't make as much money as men
D. there are not enough jobs for women in the workplace

 

A: In his essay "Feminism Turns 30", author Nicholas Lemann states that feminism stands out among movements of the post-World War II period for having had the greatest influence on American life. No other force has worked its way into the fabric of as many lives.

In 1963, Betty Friedan proclaimed that American women were not necessarily overjoyed with scrubbing toilets, seeing their reflection in dishes, and washing dirty rings around the collar. Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique became an instant best seller; it exposed the problem that had no name to men, who often assumed that their wives received ultimate satisfaction by being "just housewives." More importantly, the book inspired women, who were frustrated by performing the same mundane, domestic chores day-in and day-out. For many women, Friedan's words offered support and a promise that it was natural to want something outside the home. Thus, Friedan challenged middle-class Americans to reconsider their prevailing assumptions of house, work, and their lives. Read the first chapter of The Feminine Mystique.

Use Friedan's chapter, and Lemann's essay to answer the following questions:

  • Did Friedan's book The Feminist Mystique revolutionize our world?
  • What segments of the American population were excluded from Friedan's book?
  • How have our domestic lives changed since the early 1960's?
  • What has led to the current backlash against feminism?

 

B: The War on Drugs has been going on in the United States for decades. The budget for the fight has reached billions and billions over the years, and shows no sign of changing. For an eye-grabbing version of these numbers, click here. Government-sponsored surveys reveal that there is continued use of illicit drugs, and while statistics about seizures of controlled substances show that government agencies are catching more and more as it's coming in, what about everything that gets through? Read this Christian Science Monitor article about educational programs in the schools, and this one about what's happening outside the schools.

  • Is the war on drugs working in your opinion? Why or why not?
  • What do you think it will take to get people to stop taking illegal drugs? Is that a practical goal?
  • If you had to come up with a strategy on handling the illegal drug issue in the United States, what would you suggest?

 

 

C: The Cold War dominated global politics for nearly a half a century. The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were locked in a battle for nuclear supremacy, and for influence. One of the best-known physical manifestations of this ideological battle was the Berlin Wall, which separated East Berlin from West Berlin from 1962-1989. Tour the interactive Newseum exhibit on the history of the Berlin Wall.

  • Look up some of history's other walls on the internet. Why were they built?
  • If you lived in East Berlin, how would you feel about the wall getting progressively bigger and more impassable?
  • Would you feel safer? Or would you feel more trapped?

Here's an anecdotal account of one attempt at escaping East Germany.

 

 

D: One of the defining issues of the 1980s was the rise of the AIDS epidemic. Coordinated response from the federal government was slow, for a variety of reasons. Read this essay about the recent furor over the television movie , The Reagans from a few years back and a look at what happened during the early days of the epidemic. Watch the film "And the Band Played On."

  • Why did the Reagan administration wait so long to recognize the problem?
  • How was the medical community thwarted in their attempts to get the disease on the national radar?
  • What were the public's initial fears about AIDS? How were those fears allayed?
  • Is it just the political community that is portrayed as the problem in this film? Explain your answer.

 

 

E: The right and the left in American politics began the drift toward polarized opposites during the Reagan administration, and has been growing and solidifying ever since. One particular point of heated debate between the two sides are the 'culture wars,' encompassing everything from content in television shows to the current debates on gay marriage. Do a little web research, choosing one issue in the 'culture wars' and finding comments from both the left and right on the issue.

  • What is the main point of contention?
  • How do the different sides view the issue?
  • Do you believe there is any chance of reconciling the two views? What would that be?
  • Is there a middle ground in America anymore? Why or why not?