Feminine Mystique - HS200

Underlying long term cause

Influence of The Second Sex - Simone De Beauvoir (1963)

French writer, intellectual, philosopher and feminist. Feminist existentialism (free will) and theory. "one is not born, but rather becomes a woman".

Cause 1 - De Beauvoir - who is she?

Feminity ideas are 'cultural constructions' and not fact,. Produced by men to 'supress women'. Society has taught women to fulfil a man's needs. They must be typically beautiful to be considered worthwhile. A woman has no political power.

Cause 1 - De Beauvoir and The Second Sex - What are the main ideas?

Friedan mentions the 'cultural construction' of the 'perfect housewife, and goes on to analyse the media and how feminities's values have been produced and managed by men to 'shape' women.

Cause 1 - How is TFM similar to TSS?

"it didn't influence me as much as depress me".

Cause 1 - Friedan acknowledging TSS - first read it as a young housewife with kids but...

an event which Betty Friedan wanted to take credit for - taking a definitive stance on her patriarchal society's traditional gender roles and creating change.

Cause 1 - Why did Friedan fail to acknowledge De Beauvoir?

Most scignificant long term cause

Situation for white, middle-class women in the 1950s and 60s America

pervasive ideals of 'femininity' and promoted domestic values for women across women's magazines, psychology, cinema and television. Post-WW2 lots of pressure for women to leave their jobs in 'patriotic' industries to make way for men coming home. BY 1955 half of the homes in America owned a TV.

Cause 2 - What was the media constantly reinforcing? Social pressure?

"a woman knows her place".

Cause 2 - The Good Wife's Guide, May 13th 1955 issue of Housekeeping Monthly

By the mid-fifties, 60% of women dropped out of college to marry, or because they were afraid too much education would be a marriage bar" and "where once they had wanted two children, now they had four, five, six."

Cause 2 - Marriage and family statistics

Dissatisfaction with media's ideals that "complete devotion to house, husband and family was of equal value to a man's role as a breadwinner". Friedan wanted to investigate this.

Cause 2 - how did Betty Friedan define this dissatisfaction? How did it lead to TFM?

Written by Betty Friedan, and published in 1963. Analyses traditional values of femininity.

The Feminine Mystique

coined by Friedan - dissatisfaction with their roles in society many housewives unknowlingly shared.

Intro - 'the problem with no name'

"pulled the trigger on history" - widely credited with starting second wave feminism

Intro - Alvin Toffler on TFM's significance

Short/long term cause (dependant on Q)

Betty Friedan's own life experiences

Her mother was forced to quit job and run household by her husband. Had a "a typical female disorder characterised by impotent rage" - too much power in house, too little out of it. Channelled frustration into empasising her kid's success, pressured BF to fulfil her interest in journalism.

Cause 3 - How did BF reflect on Miriam's (her mother's) experiences? "A typical...

"When I grow up I want work to do... because I know what was wrong with my mother, why she made our life so miserable... she didn't have any work of her own to do." "I don't want to marry a man and keep house for him and be mother of his children and nothing else".

Cause 3 - How did BF want to live after seeing her mother? "When I...(2006) "I don't want to...

BF lost her job, tried to work but became a 'restless homemaker'- when pursuing work she was "half-guiltily and half-heartedly using my abilities and education in work that took me away from home".

Cause 3 - What was BF's reality when trying to work?

active, decisive and rebellious. wrote in school newspapers to "express her feelings of injustice", "promote social and political issues such as anti-war and marxism" created her own magazine called 'tide', and wrote published poetry. Graduated summa cum laude with psychology (1942).

Cause 3 - What was BF like/involved in at school?

"Immediately ambitious... would strive to reach the top of the world"

Cause 3 - Doug Palmer 1958.

Felt an urge to write, but freelancing for magazines meant she was helping to create the feminine illusion she didn't like - "I want to do something with my life - to have an absorbing interest"

Cause 3 - How did BF want to respond to experiencing 'the problem with no name'?

"after conducting a survey of her Smith classmates at a 15-year reunion, Friedan found that most of them were, like she was, dissatisfied suburban housewives." Friedan researched economics, history, sociology and psychology for five years and conducted countless interviews with women across America investigating 'the problem with no name'.

Cause 3 - What specific action did BF take in 1957 at a 15 year Smith reunion?

Short-term, political consequence of TFM

Establishment of NOW (National organisation for women) and consciousness-raising groups

"Work is the solution", because the "only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own". In

Consequence 1 - What was the biggest concept in Friedan's TFM?

"it's like some secret order has been given to not do battle on the sex discrimination part of Title VII..."

Consequence 1 - Was Title VII held up? EEOC lawyer Sunny Pressman "It's...

The Black Civil Rights movement created a protest culture for legal change. Many feminist NOW leaders adopted successful non-violent strategies which had stemmed from the co-occurring 1960's Black Civil Rights movement, such as protesting and marches.

Consequence 1 - Who/what were NOW leaders inspired by?

Where groups of 10-12 women gathered to share experiences of dissatisfaction of female concerned experiences like marriage, abortion, and children and dissatisfaction, prompted by Friedan's ideas in TFM. Created a "sense of sisterhood".

Consequence 1 - What are consciousness raising groups to form? How did TFM lead to this?

Quickly became a bestseller. Sold more than 3 million copies in 13 different translations. It spent six weeks on Time's bestseller list.

Consequence 2 - Statistics of TFM's reach

Long-term, social consequence of TFM

Opposing perspectives which developed in response to TFM's ideas

BF "galvanised women to think about their roles and identities in society". But, it only catered to white, middle-class women in America.

Consequence 2 - What was TFM's effect as the "unofficial bible" of 2nd wave feminism? "galvanised...

lesbian women, as Friedan believed homosexuality was "spreading like a murky smog over the American scene" - "lesbians are a threat to feminist movement". popular stereotype at the time: 'all feminists are man-hating lesbians'.

Consequence 2 - Who were the 'lavender menace' and why?

BF "ignored esixtance of all non-white women and poor white women" by failing to recognise the intersectional disadvantages they faced.

Consequence 2 - Bell Hooks on the intersectionality of TFM

"narcissism, insensitivity, sentimentality and self-indulgence".

Consequence 2 - Bell Hooks on TFM. A product of BF's..

"An enormous number of women recognised themselves in my book. I know, they told me".

Conclusion - BF's understanding of TFM's significance. "An enormous

"freed me from the rubrics of authoritative idealogy"... and "led me to whatever original analysis of woman's existence I have been able to contribute".

Friedan on acknowledging TSS - later on, she stated it...

"The Chef does everything but cook - that's what wives are for!"

Kenwood Chef (mixer)

Marketed directly at women and homemakers - "mothers little helpers". By the 1960s women were being prescribed valium twice as much as men, due to an anxious, unidentifiable emotion towards domesticity and 'a women's role'.

Cause 2 - Anti-anxiety meds

Modern appliances made her feel useless. Frustrated for not using her education. Became victim to 'problem with no name' just like her mum.

Cause 3 - What was BF's reality at home?

Stated employers would be prohibited from "discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, colour, national origin and religion".

Consequence 1 - How did Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964 match to TFM?

"women were denied access to equal employment through the EEOC's failure to hold up Title VII", as Friedan thought necessary in TFM.

Consequence 1 - Why was NOW formed by Betty Friedan in 1966?

"to bring women into the mainstream American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men".

Consequence 1 - What was NOW's mission?

150 NOW female members gathered to protest westernised, 'feminine' beauty ideas and women being "enslaved to beauty standards". For the first time ever the term "women's liberation" was broadcasted on live television - these terms linked to similar ideas of BF's in TFM.

Consequence 1 - NOW at the Miss America Pageant Protest (1968)

Protested job vacancies being advertised under ‘male’ and ‘female’ columns in local newspapers, which directly followed Friedan’s desire in TFM that male/female ‘roles’ become degendered to liberate women

Consequence 1 - NOW's first picket.

"problems that you felt were happening to you alone probably were your fault, but if it's happening to other people then it's a social problem and not just a personal problem".

Consequence 1 - Heather Booth of WITCH

Being elitist, insensitive towards racial and ethnic minorities, excluding any discussion of lesbianism as well as describing women who did genuinely enjoy being housewives as "meaningless".

Consequence 3 - How was BF criticised?

The Lavender Menace formed in 1970 a popular Gay Liberation group who rejected the idea that lesbians deserved no place in the feminist movement. Led by a former NOW member Rita Mae Brown, the group interrupted the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1st, 1970, demanding "the issues of lesbianism be put on the agenda".

Consequence 3 - What action did lesbian women take in response?

Black women commonly working as maids, babysitters, factory-workers, clerks and prostitutes, not as "leisurely housewives" at home. Additionally, the white society discriminated against Black women's desire to have children through non-consensual "sterilisation".

Consequence 3 - What was common issues for African American women in 1950s-60s USA which mean't they couldn't relate to TFM?

She did not mention women without a husband, children or their own home, or notion as to who would take care of the kids if mothers were encouraged to go out and work.

Consequence 2 - Ignorance in TFM

"The Feminine Mystique was not ahead of its time", because it only became a best-seller as it combined "concerns people are already mulling over" into an understandable collection of expertise about 'the problem with no name' for the ordinary white middle-class women.

Consequence 2 - Stephanie Cootnz. "TFM was not... "combined...

Critiqued the academia that Betty Friedan uses in her diagnosis of The Feminine Mystique as suspicious. He thought the work by Margeret Mead, Alfred Kinsley and Bruno Bettelham that she relied on could not be genuinely referenced.

Consequence 2 - Alan Wolfe (1999).