‘The Feminine Mystique’ by Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, London, Victor Gollancz LTD, 1963, 410 pp., ISBN 0-575-00951-9

‘The Feminine Mystique’, first published in the year of 1963, is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential books in the 20th century as well as in the history of feminism. (Fox, 2006) The book signals the beginning of the second wave of the feminist movement as feminism literature to illustrate and analyse female problems in 1960s America. (Fox, 2006) At the same time, it is a declaration to proclaim an era in which American women strove towards the equality that females refused to be subordinate to patriarchal ideology anymore.

In ‘The Feminine Mystique’, Betty Friedan for the first time in history describes ‘the problem that has no name’ for American women in the 1950s to 1960s. It was the time just after World War II and men went back form the war frontier to their working positions, most of the American women went back to the kitchen rather than going out to work as they had during the war. They were identified by Friedan as ‘suburban housewives’ (Friedan, 1963:18), suffered from a common dissatisfaction of their lives, which is called ‘the problem that has no name’ or the ‘nameless aching dissatisfaction’ in the book. By analysing the essence of the problem combined with a quantity of real-life example and previous theories, the author defines the feminine mystique as the convention that women should become an ideal patriarchal woman in the society where men create women as capable housewives as well as gentle mothers. (Friedan, 1963:15-28)

Betty Friedan provides an evidence-based overview of the feminine mystique in America in the 1960s. After an overview of the book, she firstly gives a general picture of typi...

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...book talks about how common housewives suffer during their daily lives and its underlying causes. It is easier for readers to recognise the characters Friedan mentioned in the case studies around us even in the 21th century. Although most of the time, the author focuses too much on the little circle of American suburban housewives in her age, it is not difficult to find the guiding significance for many other countries nowadays. It is highly recommended to all students and readers whose degree is in the area of arts or humanities, or who are interested in gender studies.

Bibliography

Fox, M. (2006) Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85. The New York Times, 5th February.

Friedan, B. (1963) The feminine mystique. New York: W.W. Norton.

Tyson, L.(2006) Critical Thinking: A User Friendly Guide. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.