Feminist Movement of the 1970s

Ending the "The Problem with No Name"

The Golden Age of marriage and family, the 1950s, was statistically a time when most women married and few divorced (Smith, lecture notes). On the surface, American society seemed to be content with the status quo; however, the existence of pervasive racial and gender inequality was preventing the oppressed from fully taking part in the Golden Age, let alone enjoying full citizenship.

Women in the 1950's began to suspect their happiness might depend on factors other than marriage, home, and three and a half children (Smith, lecture notes). Alcohol and valium were helping women find some relief from their unrealized dreams and unrelenting melancholia, in their role as domestic servants. With most of society expecting women to be happy as wife and homemaker this pervasive sense of unfulfillment became known as the "problem with no name." When the...
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