Chapter 3, The Crisis of Woman's Identity Summary

Through the questionnaires and interviews with women, Friedan found that many women of her generation failed to see themselves past the age of twenty-one. She shares a personal experience of winning a fellowship to study as a psychologist. At that point in her life, she had trouble seeing her future or knowing what to do beyond college. The decision was terrifying. In 1942, no question was more important than love, so when a boy told her they had no future because he could not get a fellowship, she gave it up. Friedan cannot explain why she gave it up, settled into the feminine mystique, getting married, having babies and living in the expected way.

Fifteen years later, she finds the question still exists among women in college. The students she interviewed did not know...