The idea that women's liberation is also men's liberation arouses the awakening of feminism. In 1966 Frieden and other feminists founded the National Organization for Women. Then other women's organizations for equal rights were formed in the United States and Western Europe. These organizations sought to overturn discriminatory laws and practices that forced women to hold down their status, such as discrimination in matters of contract and property ownership, employment and wages, the treatment of wage income, and issues relating to sex and child-bearing. The growing feminist movement more broadly seeks to change social stereotypes that women are more vulnerable, passive and dependent, less rational and emotionally reactive than men. Feminism strives for greater freedom for women in the workplace and makes them financially and psychologically independent of men, if they wish. Feminists criticized society's general emphasis on women as objects of sexual desire and sought to raise women's awareness and expand their opportunities in order to achieve equality with men. Another objective of feminism is to promote women's participation in all areas of political decision-making and social life.
