Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan (1921–2006), is one of a relative handful of modern books that can truly be said to have altered dramatically the course of thinking—in this case, about the role of women. After the book was published in 1963, it touched off a national debate about women's roles and quickly became a central text in modern feminism. Indeed, that debate sometimes became fierce, for Friedan and her family were forced to move out of their New York City neighborhood because of threats from angry neighbors.

Friedan earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Smith College and continued her studies in psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. She then moved to New York City, where, in addition to writing freelance magazine articles, she married, had children, and adopted the traditional role of homemaker. The genesis of The Feminine Mystique was her fifteen-year class reunion at Smith. She later distributed a questionnaire to two hundred of her classmates (all women, since Smith is a women's college). The results of the questionnaire led her to the conclusion that many of her classmates—and by implication many American women—were unhappy and did not know why, causing her to title the first chapter of her book “The Problem That Has No Name.” Initially she had difficulty finding a publisher for a magazine article she wrote based on her findings, but after several years of further research and writing, she published her results in The Feminine Mystique.

After defining the problem in chapter 1, Friedan provides a detailed analysis of the root causes of the problem. In her view, the problem stems from an idealized image of what it means to be a woman. Women, she says, have been encouraged, if not forced, to adopt the roles of mother and “housewife,” in the process abandoning their education and any career goals they might have had. These roles prevented women from developing their unique identities. She sees the problem as an outgrowth of World War II and the cold war that followed, which produced the baby boom and the sprawling suburbs that limited and defined womanhood. The overwhelming response to The Feminine Mystique turned Betty Friedan into a household name and launched her career as a leading feminist speaker, writer, and cofounder and president of the National Organization for Women.