We really are living in a global village. Friedan, a distinguished visiting professor at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations who will be speaking on campus tonight, credits the women's movement with playing a transformative role in American society. I feel very lucky and almost awed to have been part of it. Women's lives are no longer defined solely by marriage and children. These may be important to them, but they may only be part of the picture.
Women now have choices.
It gratifies Friedan to see women working in every profession today and legislation in place prohibiting gender discrimination in the workplace. This time she aims to transform the world by using the feminist ideals of equality and justice to shape a broad societal and workplace agenda for men as well as women. Although the workplace has changed radically since women began entering it in large numbers in the 1970s, jobs, career lines, training and professional advancement are all still based on the model of the employee with a non-working partner who takes care of life's details. That model is out of step with reality, observed Friedan. No one has moved to shorten the work week.