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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page book review that offers a summary, analysis and personal reaction to Betty Friedan's classic text, The Feminine Mystique, which is credited with starting the modern women's movement. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KL9_khfriedfmy.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
role in society was to be a homemaker, wife and mother, and professional women were an anomaly. Friedans book is credited with launching the modern womens movement, which radically changed
American culture. The following examination of Friedans book offers summary, analysis and a personal reaction to the text. Summary Friedan begins by describing several case studies that illustrate
the deep unhappiness and frustration that many women experienced in regards to their roles as housewives. In the next chapter, she examines how the ideal of the homemaker as the
ideal of femininity, which she terms the feminine mystique, developed. She notes that in the 1930s popular media featured women who were intelligent and confident, with many featured in successful
careers. However, this changed after World War II, as media began to stress that the only acceptable female ambitions were marriage and motherhood. Over the course of the next
several chapters, Friedan charts the struggle of womens search for identity and the history of the nineteenth century womens movement and how this ended when the goals of access to
higher education and the right to vote were achieved. In chapters five through seven Friedan discusses cultural factors that have influenced the feminine mystique. This includes the influence of
Sigmund Freud and his theory of penis envy, as well as the influence of sociology and the school of functionalism, which dictated that women who did not accept the role
of homemaker/mother threatened the balance and continuance of society. In the concluding chapters, Friedan systematically addresses all of the factors that she sees as maintaining the feminine mystique. In chapter
12, her evaluation of this cultural situation concludes that it creates a "Comfortable Concentration Camp" (Friedan 393). Furthermore, she argues that the feminine mystique not only harms women, but their
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