As only thirty- eight percent of women worked in that time, they faced ruthless treatment in the work force including, but not limiting to; sexual harassment, sexual assault, lower wages ( fifty nine percent of men’s pay, compared to today’s seventy nine percent), and longer hours. Not only that, but seventy five percent are bounded to a constrained number of jobs including clerical work such as filing, sales and factory jobs, household workers, or nurses. These were considered “Proper” and “feminine”, as they were low status tasks that were considered beneath men. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allowed these women to have legal representation to put an end to the disposition they faced due to their gender. Usually through civil lawsuits, these women acted as a catalyst for change by forcing their employers to pay sums of money, and as cash is very salient to most, management were galvanized to eradicate sexist behaviors in order to sustain the finances. While illegal, discrimination on the basis of sex was not enforced by those with the responsibility to maintain the laws. “Although a third of cases brought before the Equal Opportunity …show more content…
Finding a man to marry and submit to was no longer mandatory as seen in the protagonist of the novel the bell jar, “I will never get married” (Esther). As they were slowly incorporated into the working domain usually dominated by men, women shifted their priorities from being child bearing and being a housewife to earning an education and making money own their own instead of depending on a husband and/or any other male figure to do it for them. Their independent lifestyles could also be seen in pop cultures including music. One of the most popular musicians of that time (and even today) Bob Dylan proclaimed “Come mothers and fathers…throughout the land…and don’t criticize…what you don’t understand…your sons and daughters…are beyond your command” The meaning behind it was the morals and values previously held by past generations are no longer held dear by the current generation. That the 1960’s youth were rebelling against the social norm and embracing change. Before then, boys were held on a higher pedestal then girls because they were considered stronger and more valuable. Females began to comprehend their significance as they accepted their identities fighting against the stigma that was attached to their sex for hundreds of centuries. “You were expecting me to be a man, so was my father.” (Mad Men season one, episode one.) In