The Feminine Mystique and its Lasting Effects Today
By: Anjo Chu
The Feminine Mystique written by women’s rights activist Betty Friedman, explains the prevalent frustration among middle-class American white women during the post- World War II period. Friedman coined the phrase “feminine mystique” as a way to illustrate the stereotypical assumptions of women. Explaining the belief that women could only find fulfillment in life through a domestic environment, all chores relating to housework, children and marriage. Friedman describes in fuller detail the explanation to the stigma to how women that were “truly feminine” would have no inclination for higher education - such as university, a career or even casting political votes, but that they would only be able to execute their life fulfillments in the house they reside. The book notes that this frustration had already existed, but women had trouble articulating it into words. Women that discussed this were seen as improper and ungrateful, causing an increase of negativity being related to female rage and further labelled this conversation as taboo.
Friedman states, “The feminine mystique was the problem that has no name.”
The feminine mystique included statics and interviews that Friedman herself hosted to further paint the picture of a woman's desire to achieve the ultimate feminine mystique. As an example, towards the end of the 1950s, 14 million girls were becoming engaged by the age of 17, at the same time the average age of marriage had dropped to 20 years old. This is a direct correlation with the decrease in the number of women attending higher education programmes and women high school graduation rates.
Friedman argues that when men from the military returned home after WWII, women - that had to step in to fill the jobs men left - were expected to immediately turn back to doing so-called “feminine activities”. Men who had returned also held a certain expectation for the treatment they earned, feeling as though their wives needed to be even more nurturing towards them. Friedman noted that this was the situation that inspired her to start writing the book.
With the book being written during the end of WWII, Friedman argued that because of the escalating Cold War during the 1950s, the growth of the American nuclear family and the ideal domestic life was a large part of the ideological battle against the USSR. Friedman also explained that middle-class white women were considered soldiers in the ideological battle as well because they represented the idealised femininity.
“Women helped shape the idea of superiority of the American capitalist consumer society.”
This book was the start and inspiration for the second-wave feminism movement. which successfully implemented the first-ever federal law to directly addresses sex discrimination. It banned discrimination in access to credit based on sex or marital status and was later amended to include race, religion, national origin, and age.
Although faced with many positive reviews from fellow women of her socio-economic class, she received heavy criticisms from women of color, being portrayed as dismissive of the prejudice and racism that is so hemmed into their experience of sexism that it remains pervasive in the US till this day.
Many popular writers during the time also commented on this theory of the feminine mystique coming across as a show of elitism and classism, along with it manufacturing an even more segregated idea of feminism than ever before, some even claiming for it to be counterproductive.
The book also influenced the start of the conversation of abortion and birth control in America. She presents her idea of abortion very clearly in the book, expressing her opinion that if abortion was to be legalised, there would be less deaths in relation to pregnancy.
Although this topic was only briefly described the book, it sparked a national discussion about the actual by-laws in regards to abortion and over-the-counter (OTC) birth control. The Feminine Mystique was commonly creditted for the women’s rights protest within the abortion strike of Roe v.s Wade, linking with historical impacts still relavent today.
Sources:
Book - The Feminine Mystique By Betty Friedman
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