Paper Example on Advancing Equality: 1950s-1960s, Women, Elderly, and Social Security

American society has evolved throughout history with achievements and transformation in issues that touch on equality. In the 1950s and 1960s, there have been calls to advance equality issues touching on women and the elderly, particularly on welfare issues. The detailed analysis of the issue of feminine mystique and social security highlights the challenges that have been faced by women and the working population in the U.S. The article on social security provides a policy recommendation of privatizing social security to enhance accountability and enhance the satisfaction of contributors the social security. The feminine mystique, on the other hand, highlights underlying issues that promoted inequality among women through the portrayal of being a housewife as the ultimate satisfaction to the female populations. These issues have common similarities and differences which continue to affect millions of people in America.

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The article "Social Security: Continuing Crisis or Reforms" by J. A. Dorn highlights the continuing crisis on the issue of social security particular on welfare and insurance components. In the article, the author notes that there have been calls to reform social security to ensure that it is representative and advocates for equality. It is true that individuals who benefit from social security are the elderly but contribution to the scheme is done by American workers who are made up of the younger population. There have been attempts by Congress to increase the benefits of social security while reducing the taxes from the same something that has gone well with the elderly (Dorn, 1983). However, social security raises an issue particularly for individuals working in the private sector and the limitation of accessing these benefits before one attains the retirement age. The controversy has led to different sections of the population demanding that social security is privatized to allow the younger population to have the freedom to make choices that would allow them to benefit from their contributions to social security (Dorn, 1983). Besides, there have been calls for the reform of social security into a private entity that would allow the input of members to earn interests which can be redistributed to members.

"The Feminine Mystique" is an article by Betty Friedan that highlighted the plight of women in the 50s and early 60s. In the article, the author highlighted issues that had trampled women from pursuing interests that could elevate them in society. Friedan noted that women were suffering from the dissatisfaction that was being reinforced by education, popular media, consumer patterns, and academic theories (Friedan, 2010). The pressure from society forces women to drop out of school or make choices of being housewives. Besides, psychological and sociological theories were twisted by the media to propagate feminine mystique. These theories were used to portray women are lesser beings from men and could do better as homemakers rather than competing for other activities with men. The field of academia further discouraged women who had potential from continuing their education (Friedan, 2010). The discouragement blocked women from accessing opportunities that could allow them to explore their abilities. The consumerism during this period targeted women through advertisements on products that would enable women to continue being homemakers (Friedan, 2010). The adverts glorified women as homemakers who nurtured the careers of their husbands and their children (Friedan, 2010). According to Friedan, these factors continued to deny women the much-desired freedom which concentrated in doing activities that they did not find satisfaction. The article was part of a series of article and talks that intensified the women movement in pursuit of equality.

The two articles share similarities particularly in highlighting issues that created inequality in the society. In the article on social security, there is systematic equality from the fact that social security has been designed to lock out the younger population from accessing the benefits (Dorn, 1983). The fact that one has to attain the retirement age appeals to the elderly while locking out the youth and young adults. Similarly, discrimination and inequality are highlighted in the article of feminine mystique (Friedan, 2010). The author provides some factors that supported the feminine mystique in society. It was clear that no one found fault on these factors and less regard was given to the fact that women continued to suffer in marriages where they expected to take care of their homes (Friedan, 2010). The other similarity is that both articles identify the problem and offer a solution to the problem. On social security, there is a recommendation on privatizing the entire social security program. Friedan suggests addressing inequality through the efforts of women civil rights movement.

The main difference between the two articles is that one pursues the interest of the female gender while the other is focused on the interest of the entire population. Friedan targets female inequality in an era where women were denied the opportunity to grow and pursue self-fulfilling careers (Friedan, 2010). On the other hand, social security article addresses a crisis on social security issues that promotes inequality by favoring the elderly (Dorn, 1983). Besides the article highlights the issue between the young and the older without raising gender issues, unlike Friedan article that is so sensitive on the female gender (Dorn, 1983). The other notable difference is that social security article highlights policies that have been used by Congress to advance inequality. On the other hand, the feminine mystique article creates awareness on the existence of gender inequality in society.

References

Dorn, J. A. (1983). Introduction: Social Security: Continuing Crisis or Real Reform? Cato Journal, 3(2), 335-359.

Friedan, B. (2010). The feminine mystique. WW Norton & Company.