 |
| Betty Friedan |
Friedan came up with the idea for writing the book in 1957, she had to conduct a survey of her former classmate. She found in her results that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives. This prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique by conducting interviews with other suburban housewives. As well as having these interviews she researched media and advertising depictions of women. She originally intended to publish an article on the topic, not a book, but there were no magazines that would publish her article. Friedan's book had such a significant impact as it challenged the idea a the time that, "fulfilment as a woman had only one definition for American women after 1949—the housewife-mother." In the first 3 years of the book being printed over 3 million copies were soldFriedan later helped to organize NOW (The National Organization for Women), she helped to draft the founding statement of NOW. The statement called for "the true equality for all women". NOW demanded the removal of all barriers to "equal and economic advance". Friedan's influence can be seen in the founding statement; a main emphasis of the book is "women's need for identity and autonomy", and NOW's statement says "NOW is dedicated to the proposition that women first and foremost are human beings, who… must have the chance to develop their fullest human potential.
Soures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feminine_Mystique
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/books/betty-friedans-feminine-mystique-50-years-later.html
Nice post, Belen! Good job highlighting a very important piece of American literature. I think that today it is thought of as a revolutionary and forward thinking piece, but that led me to wonder if the original reception was as positive. In 1963, the American Sociological Review wrote that "Friedan tends to set up a counter-mystique; that all women must have creative interests outside the home to realize themselves." Additionally, The New York Times reviewed that, "What is to stop a woman who is interested in national and international affairs from reading magazines that deal with those subjects?" I think it's interesting that back then a lot of people criticized Friedan for missing the point and forcing her own agenda on other women, while today, we would think that Friedan gave women more choice.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/the-skeptical-early-reviews-of-betty-friedans-the-feminine-mystique/272659/
Thanks for this post Belen! I found it interesting how Friedan was able to find and articulate (through a book!) why women were feeling unfulfilled in this time period, rather than just ignoring the issue. After reading more about her life, I found that Friedan continued to stay politically active and helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, and wrote a book about the later stages of a woman's life in The Fountain of Age (1993) -- a kind of follow up to The Feminine Mystique. However, while learning more about her life, I found a lot of criticism about her exclusion of black women in her book, and others labeling it "racist and classist". Like most early feminist movements, race was often pushed aside and white feminism brought to the forefront. In her book, Friedan focuses only on upper-middle class white women, rather than making it a universal feminism.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/4-big-problems-with-the-feminine-mystique/273069/
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/betty-friedan