Feminine Mystique

Details Author Reviews Description Synopsis When Betty Friedan produced The Feminine Mystique in 1963, she could not have realized how the discovery and debate of her contemporaries general malaise would shake up society. Victims of a false belief system, these women were following strict social convention by loyally conforming to the pretty image of the magazines, and found themselves forced to seek meani Synopsis When Betty Friedan produced The Feminine Mystique in 1963, she could not have realized how the discovery and debate of her contemporaries general malaise would shake up society. Victims of a false belief system, these women were following strict social convention by loyally conforming to the pretty image of the magazines, and found themselves forced to seek meaning in their lives only through a family and a home. Friedans controversial book about these women - and every woman - would ultimately set Second Wave feminism in motion and begin the battle for equality. This groundbreaking and life-changing work remains just as powerful, important and true as it was forty-five years ago, and is essential reading both as a historical document and as a study of women living in a mans world. Special Features: More Niamh Brown, Exeter University , reviews The Feminine Mystique . Betty Friedan’s seminal feminist text is an eloquently argued criticism of the role which American women in the fifties and sixties were expected to take – the ‘feminine mystique’, as well as a condemnation of the scholars, magazine editors and advertising executives who created the stereotype of the ‘ideal’ woman. The book investigates ‘the problem that has no name’ – the repression and frustration of American housewives, surrounded by material status symbols and living vicariously through their husband and children, who were told they had everything they could ever want but are inexplicably depressed. Friedan devotes much analysis to the individuals which she felt contributed to this problem; Freud, anthropologist Margaret Mead, university professors who encouraged women to study home economics instead of law or science, all come under her scathing gaze. She produces some shocking statistics – in the late 1950s and early 60s, the number of women going to college was dropping, and 60% of those who did go did not finish their co Synopsis When Betty Friedan produced The Feminine Mystique in 1963, she could not have realized how the discovery and debate of her contemporaries general malaise would shake up society. Victims of a false belief system, these women were following strict social convention by loyally conforming to the pretty image of the magazines, and found themselves forced to seek meani Synopsis When Betty Friedan produced The Feminine Mystique in 1963, she could not have realized how the discovery and debate of her contemporaries general malaise would shake up society. Victims of a false belief system, these women were following strict social... Read More

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