On Oct. 4, the Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute hosted an event titled "The Feminine Mystique and the Masculine Response" in the Napoli Trophy Room at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The discussion was centered on the late Betty Friedan, a feminist revolutionary of the 1960s and '70s, and the impact she has had on what is perceived as the role of women.

The panelists were author and professor of American studies at Smith College Daniel Horowitz, Prof. Joyce Antler (AMST), Prof.Marguerite Dorn (BOLLI) and David Small, head of human resources at Steward Healthcare. Roberta Salper, scholar in residence at the Women's Studies Research Center, moderated the discussion.

The panelists shared their own experiences with and the effects they saw from Friedan's life work and her renowned book The Feminine Mystique. They also analyzed Friedan's attitude during the second feminist wave in the United States and the discrepancies between her views and other feminists' views.

In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan wrote about the "the problem that has no name," or the deep unhappiness of suburban housewives, what she believed was the underlying root of the problem, and how she believed women could move forward from it. She was inspired for her book after conducting a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion and hearing from her dissatisfied and unfulfilled female peers.

Salper introduced the discussion, touching on a point that would arise in each of the panelists' commentary: the dilemma of division in women's roles at home and work as it applies to middle-class women exclusively. While Salper said she was positively influenced by Friedan, she said that "the solutions [Friedan] suggested were incomplete ... A factory girl would remain a factory girl, a maid would remain a maid. It seemed to me that unless a women's movement made changing the status of women like Juanita and Vicenta, domestic workers I knew in Spain, as important as achieving more opportunities for my upper-middle class sister-in-law or for me in the United States, the fundamental causes of women's oppression would not be eliminated."

Antler shared her troubles understanding her own mother's identity, who did not have a career. "What kind of woman was she if she did not feel this mysterious fulfillment waxing the kitchen floor?" asked Antler, quoting a sarcastic Friedan excerpt.

Antler said she did not see her mother at home all the time like many mothers who were exclusively housewives because she helped run her spouse's business. Antler described that rather than merely assisting their husbands in furthering their careers, Friedan insisted that women needed a life plan, or a deliberately chosen career that they followed for themselves. "My mother didn't pass the test," said Antler.

Dorn brought a modern evaluation of what it is like to be a female in the workforce decades after Friedan's feminism, stating that females are still dramatically underrepresented in the workforce and have yet to get over "the maternal wall." She spoke on the importance of planning not only for a career, but also for a home dynamic. Dorn gave other tips for the younger generation, such as how to keep in mind the amount that is needed to pay off student loans and accept that tradeoffs are necessary in balancing work and family.

The discussion also touched on the difference between working for the betterment and equalization of women and men's roles through structural changes versus only personal changes of learning to balance home and work. They spoke on how structural changes, meaning the expectations such as work schedule and amount of responsibility placed on workers, must better correlate with wages and lesser gender discrimination. Small spoke about how corporations have begun to try to ignore, or do not formally take into account, gender role differences. For one, he cited "parental leave" used an alternative to "maternity leave" and said he supports a protocol that does not force workers to disclose the reasons for their work hours or penalize for them. Small spoke on the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 as one means still working toward lessening gender discrimination in the workforce now that women are gaining more access to different work opportunities.

"I think [Friedan] was scared. [Friedan had] tried to join the communist party, and was a writer for the largest communist dominated union in the U.S.; had people known that, The Feminine Mystique would have been trashed," said Horowitz.
"I am enormously grateful to Friedan for her courage and intelligence; she was a singular American woman," said Salper, adding how far women have come from Friedan's period when the word "gender" didn't even exist.

The audience was invited to take down any questions on index cards during a brief intermission, and a question-and-answer session with the audience followed.

"I think it was great to hear Ms. Dorn speak about how ... the pressure is not just on young women, but on the younger generation to be more motivated. There's a huge misconception that the structure is fine and that it's just the workforce that's wrong, but the structure is definitely in need of fixing," said attendee Omar Sedky '15 in an interview with the Justice.

Sedky also expressed his surprise in hearing how panelists of the older generation had a lot to say relevant to the younger generation.

"What we're trying to do at BOLLI is to have more intergenerational involvement ... We want the students to be more aware that we're there," said BOLLI event coordinator Phyllis Cohen '62, in an interview with the Justice. BOLLI not only provides adults in the area with a range of services including access to courses by Brandeis faculty, but also interacts with Brandeis students through programs such as mentoring and a program for international graduate students at Brandeis.