Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is considered to be one of the most influential feminist books of all time, and it is widely credited as giving momentum to the second wave of the feminist movement in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Despite criticism of some of the theories Friedan espoused in her book, and especially for her focus on the experiences of middle-class white women, The Feminine Mystique gave a voice to the disillusionment many American women felt regarding their roles as housewives and mothers after World War II. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan discusses “the problem that has no name,” which she terms the feminine mystique. Friedan argues that post-World War II society and media as well as the popular teachings of Sigmund Freud taught women that femininity was the ultimate goal to strive for rather than a career, higher education, or political rights, which she claims were the goals of “old-fashioned feminists.” Instead, women ought to be fulfilled in their lives as wives and mothers.

Friedan cites the lowered marriage age of women and increasing birth-rates post-World War II as evidence of the desire of young women to adhere to the gender roles imposed on them. The idealization of the American housewife caused women to feel that their unhappiness was a personal shortcoming, rather than a result of the pressure to conform to a feminine identity that centered on the domestic sphere. This unhappiness was often attributed to being too educated or too independent. Many women numbed their feelings of discontent through tranquilizers or alcohol. Friedan’s evidence clearly reflects the experiences of many women who returned to their domestic roles after the war ended, which allows the reader to form a connection between their own experiences and the personal stories of other women.

Friedan also criticizes functionalism, a theory developed by social scientists that rigidly defined the societal role of women, along with their fundamental and unshakeable differences from men. Because men and women must complement each other through their separate roles, the functionalist argues that it would not be possible for a woman to break away from her role by pursuing a career. In contrast to the functionalist perspective, Friedan argues that women must find a way to free themselves from societal expectations. Women who live under the constraints of the feminine mystique can “never realize their human potential” and sense of self, because they limit themselves to what society expects of them as mothers and homemakers. Education, meaningful work, economic independence, and “participating in the mainstream of society, by exercising their own voice in all the decisions shaping that society” are the main ways in which women can break free from the feminine mystique.

Friedan’s writing illustrated and gave a voice to the growing dissent amongst American women in the 1960s, which was published during the rapidly expanding second-wave feminist movement. According to scholar Imelda Whelehan, the second wave of feminism arose from the realization that women’s oppression and gender inequality were institutionalized and ingrained in society and could not be dissolved with just one achievement, such as the right to vote. Therefore, the second wave of American feminism came to be defined as a reaction against the conventional definition of the societal role of women.

After publishing The Feminine Mystique, Friedan continued to be a prominent figure in the women’s rights movement. She co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 and became its first president. NOW was one of many organizations that pushed the feminist movement and fight for equal rights to the forefront of American society. NOW’s 1966 Statement of Purpose was written by Friedan, and listed the organization’s intent to actualize the different ways in which women must “have the chance to develop their fullest human potential” and achieve equality in society. The main ways in which this goal can be achieved is through the ability to pursue education and a career, which was a direct follow-up to Friedan’s argument in The Feminine Mystique.

In 1973, after a five-year-long campaign by NOW, the Supreme Court ruled to prohibit sex-segregated employment advertisements, and in 1972, as a result of NOW’s lobbying, Congress passed the Education Amendments of 1972, which included Title IX, a guarantee of equal educational opportunities, including sports. NOW consistently petitioned for abortion rights, and NOW chapters protected women visiting newly-opened abortion clinics after the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973. NOW also helped instate the first women’s studies courses in universities, starting with San Diego State University in 1970.

Friedan writes with a compelling voice that illustrates the frustration and difficulties that many middle-class American women faced in their daily lives. However, white working-class women, poor women, and women of color are neglected in her argument, many of whom had no choice to pursue higher education and worked lower-class jobs such as domestic work and factory jobs. Friedan clearly did not envision industries such as these when she argued for women to pursue meaningful careers. Her message equated the experience of educated, middle-class white women as the experience of all American women.

Despite the valid criticisms of Friedan’s work, The Feminine Mystique is an indispensable work of literature because it helped many American women understand and voice their discontent with the roles pushed on them by society and mass media after World War II. This return to conservatism created the expectation that women ought to let go of the careers they had attained during the war in favor of returning to their existence as housewives and mothers. Friedan’s inclusion of the personal experiences of many different women across America allowed readers to understand that they were not alone. Friedan crafted a persona for her book that allowed readers to identify and sympathize with not only the other women she discusses, but the author herself. Friedan’s words appealed to the emotional struggles of women, and the book bolstered personal stories with statistics that revealed the everyday inequalities that women faced in post-World War II America, which helped women come together and gather support for the feminist movement. The Feminine Mystique’s long-lasting impact on the central concerns of the feminist movement can still be seen in feminist discussions today. Despite its shortcomings, The Feminine Mystique stands the test of time.

Sources:

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Introduction by Anna Quindlen. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. First published by W. W. Norton, 1963.

Michals, Debra. “Betty Friedan.” National Women’s History Museum. Published in 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betty-friedan.

NOW. “Statement of Purpose.” About: History. Accessed 9 November 2024. https://now.org/about/history/statement-of-purpose/.

Whelehan, Imelda. Modern Feminist Thought: From the Second Wave to ‘Post-Feminism’. Edinburgh University Press, 1995.