The Struggle for Woman's Identity
In 1963 when equal pay for women was made law in the United States, reactions ranged widely, highlighting the role conflict of women. This conflict began to be expressed in the early 1970s as "women's liberation." The stereotypes of male and female roles in our society began to be questioned. In the area of abilities we became m0re conscious that our society. was not using the vast amount of talent that women could contribute. We became increasingly aware that women were not being given an equal chance with men in jobs and in pay. Although women are now going into many "men's" jobs, the proportions are still small, and statistics indicate that most female college graduates who work still go into traditional women's jobsteacher, nurse, dental assistant, lab technician, library work, and the like. More opportunities are opening up for better utilization of female talents, but progress is slow. Legislative debate continued for two decades before equal pay for women became law in 1963, and controversy rages still.
Social pressures, in the form of conflict between the home and the job, restrict both the single and the married woman. Some of the conflict centers on individual identity. Says psychologist Erik Erikson "Young women often ask whether they can have an identity before they know whom they will marry, and for whom they will make a home. Muth of a young woman's identity is already defined in he: kind of attractiveness and in the selectivity of her search for the man (or men) by whom she wishes to be sought." Another on-the-scene observer writes: "I don't know what immutable differences exis between men and women apart from differences in their genitals perhaps there are some other unchangeable differences; probab there are a number of irrelevant differences. But it is clear that un social expectations for men and women are equal, until we provide equal respect for both men and women, our answers to this questi will simply reflect our prejudices." Strains and inconsistencies a! built into some of the expected roles of the woman in our culture, it often reaches uncomfortable proportions by adolescence and early youth. It even plays a part in the molding of mterests, and in the nays males and females get together,
