The Feminine Mystique (Ethics (Ready Reference series))
At a glance:
- Author: Betty Friedan
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Social criticism
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Sociology
- Subjects: 1950’s, Self-discovery, Wives, Mothers, Parents and children, Sexism, Sex or sexuality, Gender roles, Manners or customs, Social life, Feminism, Women’s issues, Women, Mass media, Higher education, Women’s movement, Career women, Homemakers, Advertising
The Work
Friedan defined the feminine mystique as the myth of female fulfillment based on domestic labor and proposed that the myth is based on a vision of woman not as a whole person but only in terms of her sexual role. This limiting view of woman, which further suggested that a woman’s value could only be expressed through her potential as wife and mother, discouraged women from pursuing educations or professions, thus effectively trapping them within the myth. According to Friedan, post-World War II economic and social factors combined to force American women to confine...
[The entire page is 719 words long]
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