American Second Wave Feminism
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963, and immediately became a best seller, and laid the groundwork for the new movement. Many believe that the book was the initial catalyst of the second-wave. In 1957, Freidan conducted a survey in preparation from her 15th reunion at Smith College. The results showed how unhappy women were as housewives. Freidan followed up with more interviews, finding that many other suburban housewives were just as unhappy. When no magazines were willing to publish her results, she began drafting The Feminine Mystique. She referred to the mistreatment of women as the “problem that has no name”, bringing light to the issue that not many had recognized before. She determined that post-WWII society had stay at home moms and married women in a place that they were more than discontent with. In the book, Freidan talks extensively about psychology and the minds of American women. Having a degree in psychology, Friedan criticized Sigmund Freud. Freud’s had been very influential during that time. She notes that Freud saw women as childlike and as destined to be housewives. She also discusses overlooked issues such as the change in women's education from the 1940s to the early 1960s, in which many women's schools concentrated on non-challenging classes that focused mostly on marriage, family, and other subjects deemed suitable for women. Educators influenced by functionalism felt that too much education would spoil women's femininity and capacity for sexual fulfillment. Friedan says that this change in education set back girls’ emotional development at a young age, because they never had to face the painful identity crisis and subsequent maturation that comes from dealing with many adult challenges. In the final chapter, Freidan tells many stories of women that challenged the feminine mystique,...
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