Review Of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

The Nuclear Family structure: a father, mother, and children, has been at the center of the American dream since its inception. Countless boys and girls throughout the years have grown up dreaming of manicured suburban lawns, Sunday barbecues, a pet or two, and the proverbial white picket fence. A booming post-war economy lead to the development of a sprawling suburban forest of track homes, a middle class Shangri-la show cased in the pop-culture of the 1950s. This idyllic home life seems to have lost some of its appeal during the latter half of the 20th century, in greater and greater numbers Americans are choosing to pass on the "Father Knows Best" model of life. This departure from the post-war bourgeois nuclear family is the result of …show more content…
This passage illustrates the societal expectations of the 1950s and how they confined and limited the potential of American women. The shackles of traditional roles and the domestication of women did not sit well with Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique", her work speaks out against the mainstream media portrayal of women as obedient housewives in nuclear families. Friedan gave a voice to the housewives of America who silently endured the manacles of marriage, she writes "The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning [that is, a longing] that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban [house]wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries; she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question 'Is this all?1 Her work is credited as the catalyst of the women's movement of the 1960s and second wave feminism in general. Friedan opened the flood gates, women all over the United States began to demand a different kind of life, women's …show more content…
Approved by the FDA in 1960 and available on the market in 1961, "The Pill" is the colloquial name for a birth control pill that inhibits female fertility. Birth control is significant to the empowerment of women, and therefore the declining adoption of the nuclear family structure, because it transfers reproductive power primarily from the man to the women. Before easily accessible and reliable contraception, women were forced to choose between being sexually active and seriously pursuing a career, exemplified in this passage from an interview with Barbara Burg by Patrick Kiely. "She began to have dreams of moving away to college. After graduating high school, she attended a two year junior college. Finally, she moved into a sorority and attended Mizzou from 1954 to 1957 where she received a bachelors degree in education. Upon graduation, she met and married a dapper young man, a pilot with the United States Air Force, John Burg. The two moved to Cool Valley in St. Louis County, where he later worked for McDonnell Douglass. She went to work as a 4th grade teacher at Jennings Elementary School. She quickly became pregnant with their first child. While being a teacher, she was told to dress conservative enough to hide her pregnancy. After five months she was asked to take leave from work because the children were talking about a pregnant teacher. She

Show More

Review Of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan Women's Movement

Equal Rights Amendment Pros And Cons

Review Of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

Related Documents: Review Of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan Women's Movement

Equal Rights Amendment Pros And Cons