Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
~ 109 ~
It should not be surprising to find that as of the
1970s female suicide was on the rise in the United
States. Though it has always been the case that
more men than women kill themselves, trends had
begun to change in certain large cities. In Los
Angeles, for example, whereas in 1960 of those who
committed suicide 35 percent were women, by 1970
the percentage of women among suicides had
jumped to 45 percent.
8
Another indication that
women had begun to experience more conflict came
from a University of Wisconsin study during the
same period, which found that women psychiatric
patients complained of more anxiety, depression,
alienation and inability to cope with stress than did
their counterparts of ten years earlier.
9
THE “WOMEN’S LIB” MOVEMENT
“Women’s liberation” began formally with the
founding in 1966 of the National Organization for
Women (NOW), the largest and most influential
movement group. In 1985 NOW had a nationwide
membership in the United States of some 185,000
women and men. NOW was conceived as a civil
rights lobby for women, active in organizing
