Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
~ 106 ~
single, and transformed marriages by ending once
automatic assumptions about woman’s place, stated
Angelo. Widespread commercial dissemination of
oral contraceptives — the Pill — together with the
overturning of state laws prohibiting abortion on
demand — a process which began in the
mid-1960s, but remains
enmired
in controversy
today -— had the effect of separating sexual
relations from the solemn institution of marriage.
In 1972, women already made up one third of the
U.S. work force, but their pay was much lower than
men and they were generally confined to the lower
ranking and lower skilled jobs. A soaring divorce
rate, however, meant that in 1972 some 20 million
Americans lived in households dependent on
women as the sole or principal bread winners. A
Psychology Today
survey at the time found that even
among male respondents, 51 percent agreed that
“U.S. society exploits women as much as blacks.”
2
In the more colorful phraseology of the American
politician, diplomat and author, Booth Luce:
“Power, money and sex are the three great
American values today, and women have almost no
access to power except through their husbands.
