Women's Sex Role Attitudes and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Feminist writers of the 1960s and 1970s argued that women were suffering emotional and psychological stress by adhering to traditionally feminine sex roles, and encouraged women to seek their own careers and change their views of women's roles in society. The purpose here is to test that argument by analyzing samples of women interviewed in national surveys between 1972 and 1978. The author concludes that the feminist writers were overstating the problems of the housewife, and that although many women have gone into new career fields, many other women with traditional sex-role attitudes are happy with their lives.