[12], Chapter 8: Friedan notes that the uncertainties and fears during World War II and the Cold War made Americans long for the comfort of home, so they tried to create an idealized home life with the father as breadwinner and the mother as housewife. [14] Friedan notes that this was helped along by the fact that many of the women who worked during the war filling jobs previously filled by men faced dismissal, discrimination, or hostility when the men returned, and that educators blamed over-educated, career-focused mothers for the maladjustment of soldiers in World War II. She states, "Anatomy is woman's destiny, say the theorists of femininity; the identity of woman is determined by her biology. "[18], The Feminine Mystique is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century, and is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. Friedan says that this change in education arrested girls in their emotional development at a young age, because they never had to face the painful identity crisis and subsequent maturation that comes from dealing with many adult challenges. The Feminine Mystique was used as a catalyst in the women’s movement and fight for equal rights. [27][28] The Department of Labor later chose The Feminine Mystique as one of its top ten books from that list. The impact of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique on American women has been hotly debated ever since the book hit the best-seller lists in 1963. Men returning from war looked to their wives for nurturing. By the end of the 1980s, however, its flaws had been clearly identified. Friedan used statistics and interviews to illustrate women’s desire to achieve the feminine mystique. Considered the founding text of the second wave feminist movement, The Feminine Mystique was written by Betty Friedan in 1963. “The Feminine Mystique” is a very specific cry of rage about the way intelligent, well-educated women were kept out of the mainstream of American … [41][42] In part, this criticism stems from her adherence to the paradigmatic belief at the time that "bad mothers" caused deviance from heteronormative and cisnormative society (as in, "bad mothers" caused people to be LGBTQ+). Despite these criticisms, her "language aimed at white American middle-class women won large numbers of supporters to the feminist cause," implying perhaps that Friedan's decision to exclude other groups was deliberate in mobilizing a group of women that had in some cases not thought of the improvement of their rights. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, on February 17, 1963, is often cited as the founding moment of second-wave feminism.The book highlighted Friedan's view of a coercive and pervasive post-World War II ideology of female domesticity that stifled middle-class women's opportunities to be anything but homemakers. Women already earned wages but were suffering from being "unfeminine" and not being there for her family. Further, prevailing attitudes held that “truly feminine” women had no desire for higher education, careers, or a political voice; rather, they found complete fulfillment in the domestic sphere. Some attributed that unhappiness to education; they contended that the more educated a woman was, the more likely she was to be unfulfilled as a housewife. The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, ushered in a second wave of feminist thought and progress in the United States.The book’s overall message that the only acceptable role of housewife and mother does not fulfill women reached over one million readers in 1964, a year after the book was published. [3][4], During 1964, The Feminine Mystique became a bestselling nonfiction book with over one million copies sold. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is a landmark book of its time, and it is still relevant for all women today. As Friedan pointed out, "part of the strange newness of the problem is that it cannot be understood in terms of the age-old material problems of man: poverty, sickness, hunger, cold." She argues, "In a sense that goes beyond any woman's life, I think this is a crisis of women growing up—a turning point from an immaturity that has been called femininity to full human identity. It says that the great mistake of Western culture, through most of its history, has been the under-valuation of this femininity. In so doing, she deflected attention away from her classism, her racism, her sexist attitudes towards the masses of American women. Since its first publication, it has been reissued numerous times with additions—by Friedan and other feminist writers and scholars—that provide further context. Friedan also states that this is in contrast to the 1930s, at which time women's magazines often featured confident and independent heroines, many of whom were involved in careers. In the context of her book, Friedan makes clear that the women she saw as victimized by sexism were college-educated white women". Still other critics noted that she based some of her theories on studies that have since proved inaccurate. "[34], Historian Joanne Meyerowitz argues that many of the contemporary magazines and articles of the period did not place women solely in the home, as Friedan stated, but in fact supported the notions of full- or part-time jobs for women seeking to follow a career path rather than being a housewife. "[2] Friedan received hundreds of letters from unhappy housewives after its publication, and she herself went on to help found, and become the first president of[21] the National Organization for Women, an influential feminist organization. THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. [2] It was published on February 19, 1963 by W. W. Norton. "Rethinking Betty Friedan and, Daniel Horowitz, "Rethinking Betty Friedan and, "Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85", "The Feminine Mystique | work by Friedan", "The Feminist Mystique-Simple chapter summaries", American National Biography Online: Friedan, Betty, Media Coverage of the Feminine Mystique Symposium, New Location - React: The Feminine Mystique at 50 (Day 1) | The New School | University Events, The Feminine Mystique | W. W. Norton & Company, "What 'The Jungle' and 'What Do People Do All Day?' She notes that Freud saw women as childlike and as destined to be housewives, once pointing out that Freud wrote, "I believe that all reforming action in law and education would break down in front of the fact that, long before the age at which a man can earn a position in society, Nature has determined woman's destiny through beauty, charm, and sweetness. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Friedan’s book brought together a lost nation of women and turned them into freedom fighters. Despite the ensuing criticism, the book undeniably galvanized many women to think about their roles and identities in society. The media perpetuated the notion that women went to college only to land a husband—the “Mrs. Feminine mystique discusses these roles and how women can break free this stigma. Social historian Daniel Horowitz, in Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique (1998), revealed that Friedan had been dishonest about her vantage point, which she claimed was that of a suburban mother and housewife. By the early 1960s the media had recognized that suburban women were often unhappy with their roles. When Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was first published in the United States in 1963, it exploded into American consciousness. Furthermore, largely because of the escalating Cold War during the 1950s, the cultivation of the American nuclear family and the idealized domestic space was part of an ideological battle against Soviet Russia. Friedan ends her book by promoting education and meaningful work as the ultimate method by which American women can avoid becoming trapped in the feminine mystique, calling for a drastic rethinking of what it means to be feminine, and offering several educational and occupational suggestions. In 1963 the commission appointed to review the status of women recommended an end to inequities. She ignored the existence of all non-white women and poor white women. The statement called for "the true equality for all women". It says this femininity is … The eternal feminine is a psychological archetype or philosophical principle that idealizes an immutable concept of "woman". That expectation inspired the feminine mystique. It was a strange 7 stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century 8 in the United States. The W. W. Norton publishing house, where Betty Friedan's work was initially circulated to be published as a book also generated some criticism. Wonder Woman's sister Drusilla is sent from Paradise Island to Washington to tell Diana to come home. Corrections? The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is an iconic book that relentlessly changed the way the American woman saw herself, until its first publication in 1963. [29], In 2014 the Betty Friedan Hometown Tribute committee won the Superior Achievement award in the special projects category for its 50th anniversary celebration of the publication of The Feminine Mystique. What does the feminine mystique discuss? Its arguments, broadly speaking, were less relevant, because twice as many women were in the workforce as had been during the 1950s. Although aware of and sharing this dissatisfaction, women in the 1950s misinterpreted it as an individual problem and rarely talked about it with other women. The Feminine Mystique. It was said that women, who were actually feminine, should not have wanted to work, get an education, or have political opinions. The Feminine Mystique is a book by Betty Friedan that is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. For once women of all ages and backgrounds felt like they had a purpose in their lives and didn’t want to ignore it. She postulates that these women unconsciously stretch their home duties to fill the time available, because the feminine mystique has taught women that this is their role, and if they ever complete their tasks they will become unneeded. [12], Chapter 13: Friedan discusses the psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and notes that women have been trapped at the basic, physiological level, expected to find their identity through their sexual role alone. Feminists of the 1960s and 1970s would later say "The Feminine Mystique" was the book that “started it all.” What Is the Mystique? By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. This chapter concludes by declaring "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home. [35] These articles did, however, still emphasize the importance of maintaining the traditional image of femininity. [36], Daniel Horowitz, a Professor of American Studies at Smith College, points out that although Friedan presented herself as a typical suburban housewife, she was involved with radical politics and labor journalism in her youth, and during the time she wrote The Feminine Mystique she worked as a freelance journalist for women's magazines and as a community organizer.[37][38]. [12], Chapter 7: Friedan discusses the change in women's education from the 1940s to the early 1960s, in which many women's schools concentrated on non-challenging classes that focused mostly on marriage, family, and other subjects deemed suitable for women, as educators influenced by functionalism felt that too much education would spoil women's femininity and capacity for sexual fulfillment. [31] "Women who valued their roles as mothers and housewives interpreted Friedan's message as one that threatened their stability, devalued their labor, and disrespected their intelligence. Friedan’s own solution to the problem differed greatly from those in mainstream American society. Feminist Movement Lesson Plan by Kevin Murphy 1 The Feminine Mystique: Chapter 1 2 "The Problem that Has No Name" 3 4 Betty Friedan 5 6 The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. Her work propelled the stagnant women’s rights movement into its second wave and helped women reclaim some equality. 6) The basis of “Beat” criticism of American society was how there was skepticism towards authority. [18], Horowitz, Daniel. "[32] In a Letter to Editor in McCall's, one woman wrote, "All this time I thought I was happy, and a nice person. Friedan also points out that Freud's unproven concept of "penis envy" had been used to label women who wanted careers as neurotic, and that the popularity of Freud's work and ideas elevated the "feminine mystique" of female fulfillment in housewifery into a "scientific religion" that most women were not educated enough to criticize. When the mother lacks a self, Friedan notes, she often tries to live through her children, causing the children to lose their own sense of themselves as separate human beings with their own lives. Friedan was the first feminist thinker to be translated and published in Catalan under Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Education, in her estimation, had less to do with reinforcing the feminine mystique than with the outright emancipation of women. In the Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan put a spotlight on the hidden, yet immense problems women faced during the 1950’s. They have no role as a political figure or career-oriented persona. A core document for the Second Wave of Feminism. [citation needed], NOW (The National Organization for Women) was organized in 1966 with 30 women from different backgrounds; Friedan was one of them, and helped draft the founding statement of NOW. The American housewife who properly performed her domestic duties was deemed by the American media to be the envy of women throughout the world. [12], Chapter 12: Friedan discusses the fact that many children have lost interest in life or emotional growth, attributing the change to the mother's own lack of fulfillment, a side effect of the feminine mystique. Assistant Professor of History, University of Central Oklahoma. Have In Common", The Department of Labor Chose 100+ Books that Shaped Work in America, "Home schooled student, Friedan panel recognized", "Puncturing Betty Friedan, but Not the Mystique: An Interview with Stephanie Coontz", American Writers: A Journey Through History, Cheerless Fantasies, A Corrective Catalogue of Errors in Betty Friedan's, "Feminist author Betty Friedan dies on 85th birthday", Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Feminine_Mystique&oldid=1009565682, Articles with dead external links from February 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Meyerowitz, Joanne. How awful! Less southern, and more specifically, Friedan sold 3 million copies of The Feminine Mystique within 3 years. [12] Critics of this theory point out that under the circumstances men, not women, would be buying these household products and women having actual careers would increase women's buying power while increasing advertisers profits. The Feminine Mystique was so talked about, and the title so catchy, in those days before we had words like sexism to describe what we faced, that many women eventually came to believe they’d read it, and used the phrase to describe whatever was bothering them about their situation as women. It was published on February 19, 1963 by W. W. Norton. Excerpts from The Feminine Mystique (1963) 1 Betty Friedan The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. The Feminine Mystique was one of many catalysts for the second-wave feminist movement (1960s–80s). Furthermore, feminists of colour, notably bell hooks, found Friedan’s manifesto both racist and classist, not at all applicable to African Americans and other working-class women who joined the labour force from necessity. [6], Chapter 1: Friedan points out that the average age of marriage was dropping, the portion of women attending college was decreasing and the birthrate was increasing for women throughout the 1950s, yet the widespread trend of unhappy women persisted, although American culture insisted that fulfillment for women could be found in marriage and housewifery. She coined the term feminine mystique to describe the societal assumption that women could find fulfillment through housework, marriage, sexual passivity, and child rearing alone. Yet as Friedan shows, later studies found that overbearing mothers, not careerists, were the ones who raised maladjusted children.[12]. [19] Friedan's influence can be seen in the founding statement; a main emphasis of the book is "women's need for identity and autonomy", and NOW's statement says "NOW is dedicated to the proposition that women first and foremost are human beings, who… must have the chance to develop their fullest human potential. The Feminine Mystique is a book by Betty Friedan that is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. Author of. For example, The feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, launched a modern women's movement. Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought This video analyzes Betty Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique. [13], Chapter 6: Friedan criticizes functionalism, which attempted to make the social sciences more credible by studying the institutions of society as if they were parts of a social body, as in biology. It is one component of gender essentialism, the belief that men and women have different core "essences" that cannot be altered by time or environment. It is the most famous of Betty Friedan’s works, and it made her a household name. Significant numbers of women responded angrily to the book, which they felt implied that wives and mothers could never be fulfilled. The Feminine Mystique, a landmark book by feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 that described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post-World War II period. She rejected the feminine mystique and suggested that women develop a new “life plan.” Rather than being treated as a “career,” housework was to be finished as quickly as possible. NOW demanded the removal of all barriers to "equal and economic advance". The Feminine Mystique was a hit, and her book was selling faster than a hot knife cutting through butter. Chapter 10: Friedan interviews several full-time housewives, finding that although they are not fulfilled by their housework, they are all extremely busy with it. According to Kirsten Fermaglich and Lisa Fine, "women of color—African American, Latina, Asian American and Native American women—were completely absent from Friedan's vision, as were white working-class and poor women. [12], Chapter 5: In this chapter, Friedan, who had a degree in psychology, criticizes the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (whose ideas were very influential in the United States at the time of the book's publication). [18] Her book "took the complicated and jargon-laden ideas of psychologists, economists, and political theorists, and translated them into powerful, readable, relatable prose that touched millions. "[6], The phrase "feminine mystique" was created by Friedan to show the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. The idea of feminine mystique is to idealize women’s role at home. Friedan points out that this is unproven and that Margaret Mead, a prominent functionalist, had a flourishing career as an anthropologist. Updates? "Her work indicates for us the ways that feminism was interconnected with the struggles of working-class men and women, with black and Jewish battles against racism and anti-Semitism… As a result, The Feminine Mystique had substantial impact on a wide range of political activists, thinkers, and ordinary individuals. [24], Also in February 2013, a fiftieth-anniversary edition of The Feminine Mystique was published, with a new introduction by Gail Collins. What did this book accomplish? “In almost every professional field, in business and in the arts and sciences, women are still treated … Some women, in their forties and fifties, still In the Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan put a spotlight on the hidden, yet immense problems women faced during the 1950’s. [8] Furthermore, Friedan questioned the women's magazine, women's education system and advertisers for creating this widespread image of women. In addition, Friedan has been criticized for focusing solely on the plight of middle-class white women, and not giving enough attention to the differing situations encountered by women in less stable economic situations, or women of other races. When Friedan interviewed housewives, however, she found that behaviours suggested in magazines and home economics textbooks—such as having dinner on the table when her husband returned from work and making him comfortable by taking off his shoes and offering him a drink—did not always prove fulfilling for women and that most women could not live up to that idealized feminine behaviour. "The Myth of the Feminine Mystique" in, This page was last edited on 1 March 2021, at 06:20. Situating her study of women in the post-World War II era, Friedan argued that when men returned home after the war, women—who had stepped in to fill the jobs men had left in order to fight in the war—were expected to return to the home and to perform more-suitable “feminine” activities. "[23], By the year 2000, The Feminine Mystique had sold more than 3 million copies and had been translated into many foreign languages. [31] Jessica Weiss quoted in her paper, "If the mothers, (or housewives as we are called) took this advice, what would become of our children? It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. [10], Chapter 3: Friedan recalls her own decision to conform to society's expectations by giving up her promising career in psychology to raise children, and shows that other young women still struggled with the same kind of decision. Friedan also argued that the feminine mystique hurt women both personally and professionally, and she held that, for women as well as for men, identity was largely cultivated through a sense of personal achievement, primarily through a career. For instance, by the end of the 1950s, 14 million girls were becoming engaged by age 17, and the average age of marriage had dropped to 20. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 stipulated that women receive the same pay as men for the same work. The inspiration for the The Feminine Mystique came … The Feminine Mystique, a landmark book by feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 that described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post- World War II period. Her work propelled the stagnant women’s rights movement into its second wave and helped women reclaim some equality. [24][25] An accompanying exhibit titled REACT was also on display, consisting of twenty-five pieces of artwork responding to The Feminine Mystique. They received the award from the Illinois State Historical Society. [40], Friedan has also been criticized for prejudice against homosexuality. The feminine mystique is the false notion that a woman’s “role” in society is to be a wife, mother, and housewife - nothing else. 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. She discusses the conflicts that some women may face in this journey to self-actualization, including their own fears and resistance from others. Chapter 9: Friedan shows that advertisers tried to encourage housewives to think of themselves as professionals who needed many specialized products in order to do their jobs, while discouraging housewives from having actual careers, since that would mean they would not spend as much time and effort on housework and therefore would not buy as many household products, cutting into advertisers' profits. '"[9], Chapter 2: Friedan states that the editorial decisions concerning women's magazines at the time were being made mostly by men, who insisted on stories and articles that showed women as either happy housewives or unhappy careerists, thus creating the "feminine mystique"—the idea that women were naturally fulfilled by devoting their lives to being housewives and mothers. She had been a leftist radical activist from the time she was at Smith College. In 1963, Betty Friedan called it "the problem that has no name" and then proceeded to name it — and the name stuck. The feminine mystique says that the highest value and the only commitment for women is the fulfillment of their own femininity. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Friedan says that women need meaningful work just as men do to achieve self-actualization, the highest level on the hierarchy of needs. The mystique is an artificial idea of femininity that says having a career and/or fulfilling one’s individual potential somehow go against women's pre-ordained role. "The Feminine Mystique" sold nearly 3 million copies in its first three years in print. Other sources if you have suggestions to improve this article ( requires login ) be traced back to this.. Activist from the Illinois State Historical society for prejudice against homosexuality wave movement... Mistake of Western culture, through most of its history, University of Central Oklahoma this journey to,... 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