Essay - Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique - Grade 65 PDF

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Betty Friedan ‘The Feminine Mystique’ A revelation identifying the post-war female dilemma as ‘the problem with no name’, Betty Friedan’s has been credited for “destroying, single-handedly and almost overnight, the 1950s consensus that women’s place was in the home.” (p. Xv a strange stirring by Stephanie Cootz). Friedan played a critical role in enlightening women that they were not alone in their dissatisfactions as well as in the “pursuit of feminine fulfilment”, (feminine mystique p. 16) thus liberating a generation of repressed women through exposing the myth of the ‘happy housewife heroine.’ Despite 1950s affluence enabling a comfortable home life, occupied with material wealth, the text elucidated the misery and frustration that festered in domesticity. The document was published in 1963, preceding an era of conformity and red scare culture in the United States. Nonetheless, it was amidst 1960s revolutions, and only two years after JFK’s , 1961, which aspired to provide a solution for female discrimination in the public sector. The female facade of discontentment and sheer popularity of Friedan’s book demonstrated a hidden left wing history that was unravelling and that the days of the red scare were to be buried. Friedan’s work played an enormous role in sharpening the consciousness of women, most notably during a period in which Post-war culture produced an ideal of exaggerated femininity. Friedan herself had given up her career to conform to society’s idyllic female role. (p. 389- takin it to the streets)women dying of cancer had refused a drug which research had proved might save their lives; its side effects were said to be unfeminine. A liberal feminist, Freidan claimed that feminism would also benefit men, contending that if women adopted meaningful work, it would strengthen their marriages and also alter the expectations of men. Articulating a reawakening among women, Friedan persuaded females to “want something more than my husband and my children and my home,” (p. 20 the feminine mystique) by exploring other aspects of their personalities and inclinations.” ( p. 387-Takin it to the streetsAlexander bloon and wini breines) This proposed exploration, furthermore, would certainly include a revaluation of the female role within the home. Friedan introduced an immoderate analogy, largely influenced by post-war culture, likening womens confinement to the home to that of a “comfortable concentration camp”. Nonetheless, her work denoted the very origins of Second Wave Feminism. Marwick duly asserted that it was “the text which marked the beginning of the new feminism of the sixties”. (p,88- The Sixties, Arthur Marwick). Friedan played a prominent role in founding and assisting the feminist organisation NOW in 1966, which in its manifesto demanded “Federal and State legislation, eliminating all discrimination and segregation by sex, written and unwritten”. (p. 399 NOW bill of rights, takin it to the streets). As a result of the movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972. Friedan also founded the prochoice organisation, NARAL in 1969, thus illustrating her significant contributions to the feminist re-awakening.

was not radical in its political orientation, especially when contrasted to feminist work of the late sixties and early 1970s. The issued in 1969, in New York, illuminated the several nuances and variants of the broader Second Wave. The radical organisation contended, “We are exploited as sex objects, breeders, domestic servants, and cheap labor. We are considered inferior beings, whose only purpose is to enhance men’s lives. Our humanity is denied.” (p. 407- takin it to the streets). There was a political continuum of groups, with conflicting liberal and radical ideologies, thus reinforcing the notion that there was a second wave of feminisms rather than a singular second wave of feminism. The exclusive nature of this piece presents an avenue for historical analysis. The document focused predominantly on white, suburbanite, middle-class American women. In conjunction with class prejudice, Freidan failed to discuss the issue of working women and to a considerable degree. Friedan’s career contradicted her own theory that women were confined to the home.. Many working class women envied the problems of the middle class, who felt trapped in their suburban homes, consequently making the text unrepresentative of a large number of American women during this period. The text also excluded African American women, who were less likely than white women to have access to employment which Friedan defined as fulfilling and creative.( p.127 a strange stirring) The absence of race and class intersectionality prevents the text from being radical. The manuscript was not advanced for its time, it merely “tapped into the concerns that people were already mulling over”. (p. 145 a strange stirring). Nevertheless, Friedan encouraged women to utilise the indignation her argument produced into constructive transformation of their own lives. Friedan’s revelations about women characterised the climate of social and cultural change in sixties America and was quintessential to liberal feminism. Radical feminists, towards the end of the decade, such as Pat Mainardi in the 1969 adopted and radicalised upon Friedan’s framework of women’s entrapment in the home, stating that “household work is ultimately my responsibility”. (p. 414 takin it to the streets). Notwithstanding Mainardi’s radicalised argument, was vital in provoking debate and concluded that American society was sexist and patriarchal. Friedan’s eloquent charisma enabled her to articulate the general malaise that set Second Wave feminisms in motion and instigated the struggle for gender equality.

According to Friedan, female inequality was not only widespread, it had yet to be identified. The conscious selection of the word ‘mystique’ keeps the notion of female inequality unchallenged, therefore meaning that working class and African American women......