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The Feminine Mystique Summary & Study Guide Description
The Feminine Mystique Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:
This detailed literature summary also contains Further Reading and a Free Quiz on The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.
The Feminine Mystique Plot Summary
Preview of The Feminine Mystique Summary:
Chapter 1: The Problem That Has No Name
Friedan begins The Feminine Mystique with an introduction describing the problem that has no name—the widespread unhappiness of women. Using a practice that becomes common throughout the book, Friedan offers several case studies of unhappy women from around the United States, and she wonders whether this unhappiness is related to the female role of housewife.
Chapter 2: The Happy Housewife Heroine
Friedan examines women's magazines from before and after World War II. In 1930s magazines, stories feature confident and independent heroines, of whom many are involved in careers. However, in most women's magazines in the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, the Happy Housewife, whose only ambitions are marriage and motherhood, replaces the career-oriented New Woman. Friedan calls this homemaker ideal of femininity the feminine mystique.
Chapter 3: The Crisis in Woman's Identity
Friedan remembers her own decision to conform to society's expectations by giving up her promising career to raise children and finds that other young women still struggle with...
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This section contains 1,286 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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