The Feminine Mystique
| File:Mystique.jpg Cover of the original paperback edition of The Feminine Mystique | |
| Author | Betty Friedan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | feminism |
| Genre | non-fiction |
Publication date | 1963 |
| Publication place |  United States |
| Pages | 239 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0393322572 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
The Feminine Mystique, published February 25, 1963, is a book written by Betty Friedan. According to The New York Times obituary of Friedan in 2006, it “ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century”.[1]
Overview
Friedan was inspired to write The Feminine Mystique after attending a class reunion of her 1942 Smith College graduating class. At the reunion, she sensed that her fellow alumnae felt a general unease with their lives. She followed up the reunion with a questionnaire sent to the other women in her class. The results of the questionnaire confirmed Friedan's impressions. In interpreting the findings, Friedan hypothesized that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. She believed that such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family.
Friedan specifically locates this system among post-World War II white middle-class suburban communities. She suggests that men returning from war turned to their wives for mothering. At the same time, America's post-war economic boom had led to the development of new technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making women's work less meaningful and valuable.
Synopsis
Friedan studied decades of women's magazines and found that the editorial decisions were made by men who enforced "occupation: housewife" (a typical answer in the U.S. Census).[2] Friedan criticized Sigmund Freud, whose ideas had swept America, where they were interpreted literally,[3] as well as functionalism in the social sciences.[4] She also criticized Margaret Mead, who advocated both theories,[4] and sex-directed (life-adjustment) educators who thought women should be concerned only with marriage and family.[5] She describes the motivational research behind advertising that "manipulates" women into consumption and perpetuates a "sick or immature" society instead of one that encourages women to develop their human intelligence.[6] She asserts that the time it takes to do housework expands to the time to be filled, and that housework can be done by an 8 year old child. She regrets the growth of the suburbs and fifteen years or more of propaganda asking women to conform.[7] Friedan also describes female sex-seeking, quoting the Kinsey Reports and Freud on homosexuality.[8] She voices fears that progressive dehumanization is passed through generations, finding clues in Korean war soldiers who were ill, the insane, and prisoners in German concentration camps.[9] She quotes Abraham Maslow at length, as well as Kinsey studies that found that highly-educated women experience orgasm while those who marry young perhaps do not.[10] Friedan then advocates a "life plan" for women and explains the importance of education.[11]
Criticism
Historian Daniel Horowitz has argued that the genesis of The Feminine Mystique was not, as Friedan claimed, the sudden realization of the “woman problem” by a naïve suburban housewife. Instead, Friedan's feminism was an outgrowth of her extensive involvement with radical politics and labor journalism beginning in the 1940s.[12]
Although Betty Friedan's book resonated strongly with women of the time period, helping to open the eyes of many women who did indeed feel "trapped" within a social or domestic situation, other evidence demonstrates that many of the contemporary magazines and articles of the period did not solely place women in the home, as Friedan argues, 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.[13]
In addition, Friedan has been criticized for solely focusing on the plight of middle-class white women, and not giving enough attention to the differing situations encountered by women in less stable economical situations, or women of other races.[14]
The Feminine Mystique has also been criticized for relying heavily on Betty Friedan's anecdotal research, rarely citing published studies. To form her conclusions, she relies on interpersonal discourse and unpublished university studies, which she claims were censored by unnamed organizations. The opacity of Friedan's claims and research makes it difficult to determine the full veracity of her research.
Adaptations
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of The Feminine Mystique, narrated by Parker Posey, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
See also
References
- ^ Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85 - The New York Times, February 5, 2006.
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 2
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 5
- ^ a b Friedan 1963, chapter 6
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 7
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 9
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 10
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 11
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 12
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 13
- ^ Friedan 1963, chapter 14
- ^ Horowitz, Daniel. “Rethinking Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique: Labor Union Radicalism and Feminism in Cold War America.” American Quarterly, Volume 48, Number 1, March 1996, pp. 1-42
- ^ Joanne Meyerowitz, "Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946-1958," Journal of American History 79 (March 1993): 1455-1482.p.1459
- ^ Daniel Horowitz, "Rethinking Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique: Labor Union Radicalism and Feminism in Cold War America," American Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 1(Mar. 1996) p.22
Additional readings
- Joanne Meyerowitz. "The Myth of the Feminine Mystique". In Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1-881-089-97-5