Biography of betty friedan feminine mystique summary
Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Betty Friedan’s 1963 The Feminine Mystique is considered a classic text of feminist non-fiction. It was enormously influential in kick-starting the second wave of feminism, a movement that began in the 1960s advocating increased rights and new social roles for women. By voicing the despair that many women felt, The Feminine Mystique galvanized readers across the US to join the feminist movement and prompted others to at least to take its criticisms of mid-century American society more seriously.
While the book’s impact and historical significance is undeniable, contemporary commentators have critiqued some elements of its content. Friedan concentrates on the plight of the white middle- and upper-class housewife, almost entirely ignoring lower-class women and women of color. Feminist and social activist bell hooks famously criticized this narrow focus in the introduction to her 1984 book From Margin to Center, noting that Friedan wrote as if she were speaking of a universal female experience when in reality she was only speaking of a specific kind of woman. The Feminine Mystique has also drawn criticism for its negative tone toward gay men and women.
Formally, the book’s reliance on thinkers such as Freud, Margaret Mead, and Alfred Kinsey has eroded some of its timelessness, as these theorists themselves have been criticized for flawed research methodology in the decades since Friedan penned her book. Due to these criticisms, discussions of The Feminine Mystique often involve caveats about its shifting relationships to contemporary norms.
Throughout the book, Friedan writes in first person, explaining her own dawning realization of the concepts laid out in each chapter. She incorporates a huge volume of research but intersperses her formal citations with more informal anecdotes, such as interviews she conducted with friends, neighbors, and strangers. By comparing the plight of women in her era to previo
Journalist, activist, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women, Betty Friedan was one of the early leaders of the women’s rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Her 1963 best-selling book, The Feminine Mystique, gave voice to millions of American women’s frustrations with their limited gender roles and helped spark widespread public activism for gender equality.
Bettye Naomi Goldstein was born on February 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois, the oldest of three children of Harry Goldstein, a Russian immigrant and jeweler, and Miriam Horowitz Goldstein, a Hungarian immigrant who worked as a journalist until Bettye was born.
A summa cum laude psychology graduate of Smith College in 1942, Friedan spent a year on a graduate fellowship to train as a psychologist at the University of California Berkeley. There, she dropped the “e” from her name. As World War II raged on, Friedan became involved in a number of political causes. She left the graduate program after a year to move to New York, where she spent three years as a reporter for the Federated Press. Next, she became a writer for the UE News, the media organ for the United Electric, Radio, and Machine Workers of America. Her politics increasingly moved toward the left, as Friedan became involved with various labor and union issues. Glimmers of her later interest in women’s rights also emerged at this time, as she authored union pamphlets arguing for workplace rights for women.
In 1947, Friedan married Carl Friedan, a would-be theater producer and advertising maven. Friedan had three children—in 1948, 1952, and 1956—continuing to work throughout. In 1956, the couple moved from Queens, New York, to suburban Rockland County, where Friedan became a housewife, supplementing her family’s income with freelance writing for women’s magazines.
Friedan also began the research for what would become The Feminine Mystique in the late 1950s. After conducting a survey of her Smith classmates at a 15-year reun These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. The Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan and published in 1963, is one of the literary works that sparked the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. Friedan was inspired to write her experiences after interviewing classmates from Smith College at their 15th anniversary reunion. After talking with many of them, she realized that they were unhappy and felt unfulfilled in their lives as housewives. This experience prompted her research into the phenomenon that was plaguing these suburban housewives. Friedan begins her introduction by discussing "the problem that has no name." She uses this to generally refer to the unhappiness of women in the 1950s and 1960s. She illustrates the problem with stories of sever unhappy housewives from the United States who struggled with fulfillment despite living in comfort and having seemingly "perfect" families. Chapter 1: Friedan discusses the trends in marriage and births that affected women in the 1950s. The average age of marriage was dropping and the birthrate was increasing and yet there was a continuing trend in the unhappiness of women. American culture insisted that women could find happiness in marriage and being a housewife. This American idea of a housewife directly contradicted the actual trends that were occurring. Friedan ends the chapter with an announcement--"We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'" Chapter 2: Friedan states that media is a contributing factor to the "feminine mystique" and that men are the driving force behind the editorial decisions of women's magazines. The stories and articles therein were focuses on happy housewives or unhappy women who had chosen careers. This perpetuated the idea that women should feel naturally fulfilled in devoting 1963 book by Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique is a book by American author Betty Friedan, widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. First published by W. W. Norton on February 19, 1963, The Feminine Mystique became a bestseller, initially selling over a million copies. Friedan used the book to challenge the widely shared belief that "fulfillment as a woman had only one definition for American women after 1949—the housewife-mother." In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. She originally intended to create an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish the work. The phrase "feminine mystique" was coined by Friedan to describe the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. The prevailing belief was that women who were truly feminine should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions. Friedan wanted to prove that women were unsatisfied and could not voice their feelings. The Feminine Mystique begins with an introduction describing what Friedan called "the problem that has no name"—the widespread unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. She discusses the lives of several housewives from around the United States who were unhappy despite living in material comfort and being married with children. Friedan also questions the women's magazine, women's education system, and advertisers for creating this widespread image of women. The detri The Feminine Mystique
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