Gender Studies -- the World Split Open

Why were American women unhappy? In building her case regarding the unhappiness that women in America experienced in the 1950s, the author of The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America -- Ruth Rosen -- goes into great detail. On page 13 Rosen points out that after WWII in the American culture, women getting pregnant and having babies, was extremely common and normal. In fact, a woman who was not married was "an embarrassment," and the author quotes actress Debbie Reynolds (from the film The Tender Trap) as saying that marriage is "the most important thing in the world" and that a woman is not "really a woman" until she has a wedding and babies (Rosen, 13).

But after taking care of babies all day, doing housework, running errands and cooking dinner for the family -- all the while using...
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