When our nine-year-old niece visited us here on the Cape this summer she confided a frustration to my wife. She told my wife that every time she goes to stores to look at toys or at clothing, she is always directed to the girls section. Although she is not a tom boy, she still likes many of the toys and clothes for boys more than she does those for girls. That is where the frustration comes in. When she goes to the boys section she is made to feel, by the sales people and other customers as well, as if there is something wrong with her. The sexual stereotypes, so strongly contested during the Women’s Liberation Movement have returned in full force.

This regression has been going on for a long time. When I taught my course on Adolescence I had my students do research papers. One group of students compared magazines for young girls over the period from late 1960’s to 2000. They looked at two Magazines Seventeen and Teen and analyzed the types of articles they contained. During the sixties and seventies and a little into the eighties, many of the articles were substantive and dealt with political and social issues as well as politics. Starting with the early eighties, however, and continuing until today, there has been a shift to more traditional topics. Now most of the articles deal with make up, clothing, hair styles and “how to catch your man.”

Other students did papers on why this regression to traditional stereotypes had occurred. They found that as much of the excitement about the Women’s Movement died down, many women themselves reverted to old stereotypes and this was true both for teachers and mothers. In her book, The Second Stage, Betty Friedan (Friedan 1981/1998) talks about this reversion. The young women professionals she talked to complained that the women who started the Movement already had families. But these young women were starting out as professionals, and had to put off marriage and family and it was putting them in a difficult position. Friedan also noted that despite the progress in educational and vocational opportunities for women, the majority of working women were still paid less than men and were, overall, in lower level positions.

In my courses I tried to steer a middle ground. I applauded the advances in educational and vocational opportunities, but also pointed out that there were real differences between men and women that could not be denied. Only women can give birth and nurse, for example. At the same time I tried to point out that differences were neither bad nor good they were just differences, but that they had consequences. This is the point Carol Gilligan made in her book, In Different Voice (Gilligan 1982/1993). Gilligan argued that women use a different standard than men in making moral judgments. But this does not put them lower on the scale of moral development, it is just different and because it is based on relationships, rather than rules, it is in fact more humane.

We have certainly made a lot of progress towards the equal rights of women, but we still have a way to go as my niece found out-- the hard way.

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Friedan, B. (1981/1998). The Second Stage. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.

Gilligan, C. (1982/1993). In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.