The Feminine Mystique

,,,,,,,of white middle class women,,,Although Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”, alienated non-white middle class women, it was an effective catalyst for the feminist movement in the nineteen sixties because it raised awareness about women’s issues and challenged the standard role of women in society. ^[a]

,,,,it was primarily the white middle classregarding,^[b]Friedan’s book was not an effective catalyst for the feminist movement in the nineteen sixties because it was primarily addressed towards improving the lives of white middle class women, excluding the problems faced by all other females in the United States.

        The foremost fault in The Feminine Mystique is Friedan’s centralization on white middle class women. While conducting her survey for the book, Friedan only consulted with alumni of Smith College^[1]. She conceptualized the book in an environment where white, college educated women were discussing their dissatisfactions in life based on its difficulties; however, these women had vast distinctions hindering them than black and poverty-stricken females did. As said in But Some of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women's Studies, “In most women's movement writings, the experiences of white, middle class women were described as universal ‘women's experiences,’ largely ignoring the differences of black and white women's experiences due to race and class”^[2]. Because Friedan did not gather opinions from women of different class or ranks, their issues were irrelevant in the feminist movement she was establishing. As  Coontz, “[Friedan’s] generalizations about women seemed so limited by her white middle-class experience”^[3]. Friedan’s great setbacks included depression due to being a mere housewife, and a desire to be a writer; and this is what The Feminine Mystique tackled. Feminism therefore took the front of trying to create opportunities for women to become lawyers or go back to school. While this is what white middle class women sought, impoverished females were looking for jobs, as well as black women who were also searching for an end to racism. ,,Friedan’s book was not efficient in serving blacks, the poor and other minorities as she fixated only on white middle class women. ,, as said in her book, that,,,,,the sentiment did not carry across to all women,,,,,,,,,,

“The Feminine Mystique” was an effective catalyst for the feminist movement in the nineteen sixties because it raised awareness for women at a time when there were no women’s movements. 

Throughout this period women felt shameful when they had feelings of being more than housewives; they thought it was unnatural and many sought help from doctors. Even Friedan “Until [she] started writing the book, [wasn’t] even conscious of the woman problem.” Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, associate professors at Ohio State University, wrote “During the `50s, millions of the women who had gone into the work force to aid the war effort gave up their jobs when the war ended and returned home to start families in record numbers…This postwar period fueled a narrow definition of ‘the perfect woman [as] the one who put home and family first.’” Although the boundaries of the private sphere for women broadened during the war, afterwards it built no lasting influence. 50s,,,,,,,intellect;proposedthe idea ofing,Females, in American history, are often grouped together with minorities such as African Americans; however, the latter had widely recognized social problems in the 1960s,. Feminism on the other hand was virtually inexistent in the nineteen sixties. As the Detroit News said, “For sheer impact on the lives of American women, no book written in the sixties compares with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, sometimes called the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the women’s liberation movement.” In the eighteen fifties Uncle Tom’s Cabin illustrated an image of slavery to white northerners, oblivious to the extremity of enslavement. Similarly,, The Feminine Mystique raised consciousness about the issues surrounding the female role in society. ^[c]advancement,, the goal of which was to end sex discrimination in employment. Friedan, attending as a writer and observer, noticed that the attendees were frustrated with their lack of influence on the issue, ,,,,,,,,