Friedon Ties Sexism to Violence

"In societies where sex roles are most polarized, and where women are outside the mainstream, sex is dirty, and violence breeds," Betty Friedan said last night.

Friedan, founder and chairman of the National Organization of Women (NOW), was speaking at the Harvard Law School Forum to a capacity audience in Lowell Lecture Hall.

Friedan was joined in a panel on women's liberation by Matina Horner, assistant professor of Social Relations, and Diana Gerrity, an editor of Atlantic Monthly and co-founder of Media Women of Boston. The panel was chaired by Antonia Chayes '50, associate professor of Political Science at Tufts.

"The hostility between the sexes in this country has reached the danger point," Friedan said. "This is a reality which is souring all of our lives in this country and which may get worse.

"The greatest danger facing this country is the danger of fascism. Women's liberation is not irrelevant to this. We can't just talk or go to bed until the apocalypse comes," Friedan continued.

"The solution is not tokenism-a woman here and a woman there for the moment and it is not the radical dogma that man is the oppressor or the boss and woman is the oppressed, or the worker," she concluded.

Horner and Gerrity echoed Friedan's belief that sex roles as presently defined inhibit both men and women. "Perhaps we should re-define what we mean by mental health in order to allow these roles to be defied," said Horner.

Horner reviewed her research into achievement motivation in women. "Despite the recent emphasis on women's new freedom, there continue to be severe psychological inhibitions on achievement in women, despite the lack of external restraints," she said.

Horner cited a study which showed that up to 85 per cent of female college students exhibit a fear of achievement caused by "the anticipation of negative consequences of success in the form of social rejection and the stigma of non-femininity."

Gerrity added that these fears were fostered by the media, which "portray women as bumbling incompetents." Gerrity recounted some of the successful attacks made by NOW and Media Women on "sexist" programs and advertisements.

Gerrity also said, "We women are taught to fight each other, not to trust each other. We're beginning to, but it's a scary business."