Overall, the rights and status of women have improved considerably in the last century; however,

gender equality has recently been threatened within the last decade. Blatantly sexist laws and

practices are slowly being eliminated while social perceptions of "women's roles" continue to

stagnate and even degrade back to traditional ideals. It is these social perceptions that challenge the

evolution of women as equal on all levels. In this study, I will argue that subtle and blatant sexism

continues to exist throughout educational, economic, professional and legal arenas.

Women who carefully follow their expected roles may never recognize sexism as an oppressive

force in their life. I find many parallels between women's experiences in the nineties with Betty

Friedan's, in her essay: The Way We Were - 1949. She dealt with a society that expected women

to fulfill certain roles. Those roles completely disregarded the needs of educated and motivated

business women and scientific women. Actually, the subtle message that society gave was that the

educated woman was actually selfish and evil.

I remember in particular the searing effect on me, who once intended to be a psychologist, of a

story in McCall's in December 1949 called "A Weekend with Daddy." A little girl who lives a lonely

life with her mother, divorced, an intellectual know-it-all psychologist, goes to the country to spend a

weekend with her father and his new wife, who is wholesome, happy, and a good cook and

gardener. And there is love and laughter and growing flowers and hot clams and a gourmet cheese

omelet and square dancing, and she doesn't want to go home. But, pitying her poor mother typing

away all by herself in the lonesome apartment, she keeps her guilty secret that from now on she will

be living for the moments when she can escape to that dream home in the country where they know

"what life is all about." (See Endnote #1)

I have often consulted my grandparents about their experiences, and I find their historical

perspective enlightening. My grandmother was pregnant with her third child in 1949. Her work

experience included: interior design and modeling women's clothes for the Sears catalog. I asked

her to read the Friedan essay and let me know if she felt as moved as I was, and to share with me

her experiences of sexism. Her immediate reaction was to point out that "Betty Friedan was a

college educated woman and she had certain goals that never interested me." My grandmother,

though growing up during a time when women had few social rights, said she didn't experience

oppressive sexism in her life. However, when she describes her life accomplishments, I feel she has

spent most of her life fulfilling the expected roles of women instead of pursuing goals that were

mostly reserved for men. Unknowingly, her life was controlled by traditional, sexist values prevalent

in her time and still prevalent in the nineties.

Twenty-four years after the above article from McCall's magazine was written, the Supreme Court

decided whether women should have a right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973)). I

believe the decision was made in favor of women's rights mostly because the court made a

progressive decision to consider the woman as a human who may be motivated by other things in

life than just being a mother. Justice Blackmun delivered the following opinion:

Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future.

Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care.

There is also a distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the

problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it.

In other cases, as in this one, the additional difficulties and conti