The Washington Post, February 8th, 2006
Betty Friedan had a thing about floor care. Mopping the linoleum, scrubbing the bathroom tile, vacuuming a mere twice weekly -- this humdrum trope runs through "The Feminine Mystique" with the insistent drone of a "new electric waxer over the spotless kitchen floor." The relentless but unsatisfying demands of the crumb-free floor encapsulated Friedan's famous "problem that has no name," the unspoken sense of dissatisfaction churning in the kitchens of America and the minds of American women in the mid-20th century. As Friedan summed it up, "What kind of woman was she if she did not feel this m...
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