Recognizing this truth, that nothing worthwhile comes with- out effort, may make all the difference between a successful or failed marriage. A woman's fundamental hope in life is that she will have a husband who loves her. There isn't a girl who doesn't grow up with dreams of love and marriage. Every woman by nature looks forward to finding a man she can love and who will love her. She follows the prescribed path to marriage but often without too much thought about the deeper significance of what she is doing.
Marriage is more than a ceremony.
The glamour and glitter of the wedding soon become pictures in an album, and a woman confronts the need to relate beyond herself and give genuine love to a husband and a family. It is not long before the starry-eyed and blissful bride is jolted into the realization that for her marriage to grow into a success she must find a standard of values which will help her to understand what it means to be a woman, guide her in developing realistic expectations of married life, and make her aware of the depth of commitment she must make to marriage and family in order for them to work. The story of the feminist movement in this generation is the story of women's struggle to orient themselves within a framework of such values. Women have made a courageous attempt to define their femininity and their identity within marriage and within society. They have experimented with many different approaches, some radically opposed to each other.