Summary of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The American women’s movement began in the 1950s, as women began getting married in high school and the magazines began lamenting the unhappy statistics about these young marriages. They urged that courses on marriage and marriage counselors be installed in the high schools.

#2 The birthrate in the United States was overtaking that of India by the end of the 1950s. Women were becoming housewives and mothers, and were being respected as full and equal partners with their husbands in the world.

#3 The American housewife was the image of feminine fulfillment in postwar America. Millions of women lived their lives in the image of those pictures of the American suburban housewife, kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the picture window, and smiling as they ran the new electric waxer over the spotless kitchen floor.

#4 The problem that has no name was shared by countless women in America. It was a feeling of emptiness, and a sense of not existing, that some women experienced.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669364429

IRB Media

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Insights on Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The American women’s movement began in the 1950s, as women began getting married in high school and the magazines began lamenting the unhappy statistics about these young marriages. They urged that courses on marriage and marriage counselors be installed in the high schools.

#2

The birthrate in the United States was overtaking that of India by the end of the 1950s. Women were becoming housewives and mothers, and were being respected as full and equal partners with their husbands in the world.

#3

The American housewife was the image of feminine fulfillment in postwar America. Millions of women lived their lives in the image of those pictures of the American suburban housewife, kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the picture window, and smiling as they ran the new electric waxer over the spotless kitchen floor.

#4

The problem that has no name was shared by countless women in America. It was a feeling of emptiness, and a sense of not existing, that some women experienced.

#5

I would talk to women who had spent years on the analyst’s couch, working out their adjustment to the feminine role, their blocks to fulfillment as a wife and mother. But the desperate tone in their voices was the same as the tone of other women, who were sure they had no problem.

#6

In 1960, the problem of the American housewife was suddenly being reported. It was being attributed to the education women were receiving, which made them unhappy in their role as housewives.

#7

The problem was also, and finally, dismissed by telling women that there are no solutions. This is what being a woman means, and what is wrong with American women that they can’t accept their role gracefully.

#8

American women were beginning to become discontent with their role as housewives in 1962. They were admired, envied, and pitied, and they had no other option but to adjust to their role.

#9

The problem cannot be understood in the generally accepted terms by which scientists have studied women, doctors have treated them, and counselors have advised them. Women who suffer this problem have lived their whole lives in the pursuit of feminine fulfillment, but they are not career women.

#10

The first two women never went to college, and were interviewed by a team of sociologists studying workingmen’s wives. The third, a minister’s wife, wrote on the fifteenth reunion questionnaire that she never had any career ambitions.

#11

The secret of feminine fulfillment is having children, but never have so many women had so many children in such a short period of time, willingly. The problem may not be sexual, but it is related to sex.

#12

The problem that has no name is related to the domestic routine of the housewife. It is easy to see the concrete details that trap the suburban housewife, but the chains that bind her are chains in her own mind and spirit.

#13

The problem that has