The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan’s publication of The Feminine Mystique was an instant best seller amongst the women when it was first released in 1963.[1] It was the first time that women’s struggles were not only acknowledged, but also given its own platform for people to discuss. As ominous as the name of the problem is, “the problem that has no name”, Friedan was able to capture the pure essence of the dissatisfaction that white suburban housewives were feeling during that time.

In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan explains that she believes the editors and the writers of Magazines for both men and women, although mostly the women magazines, were the “Frankenstein’s”[2] who had created this feminine monster. Friedan argues that because of these magazines, women were trapped by a web of assumptions, which essentially “narrowed”[3] and cut women’s worlds down to being the perfect housewife/mother or staying at home.

Demure Douching AD for Women. 1969

An example of Friedan’s analysis on the feminine monster can quite clearly be seen during a 1969 Advert for Demure and their douching product for women. Not only is the opening sentence of this advert incredibly misogynistic, but so is the big bold placement of the word ‘husband’, as if to suggest that the gynaecological needs of a women revolves around their desire to please their husbands. Another example can be seen in a magazine series called How To Make Money In Your Spare Time  by the Ladies’ Home Journey in 1969. The advert pushed the notion that women could find self-fulfilment in their own time at home by becoming a party planner. The example given involved one woman who invented games for the children to keep them distracted while the other two women ran an arts and crafts store.[4] These two examples of adverts that ran during the late sixties show perfectly how the ‘Frankenstein’s’ were promoting the traditional responsibilities of housewives by encouraging their readers to define women’s roles in the context of either their family, as the primary caregiver who cannot have the luxury that men do, which is a father who works, or the notion that women need to become the perfect “feminine”[5] housewife.

In an interview with Jennifer C. Harris, Friedan explained that she at one point had the constant feeling that “something was missing”[6] and that she thought “something was wrong with her.”[7] It was not until Friedan realised that nothing was wrong with her, but instead the mass circulation of these magazines that promote toxic traditional roles of women that contribute towards women’s dissatisfaction with their limited gender roles. By Friedan publicly giving ‘the problem with no name’ a platform, she was allowing other women to feel less alienated by validating their shared feelings, which was something that the Magazines such as the Ladies’ Home Journey were not doing. This is one of the many reasons why hundreds of women have testified that The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan had changed their lives. [8]

By Emma Ritchie

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[1] Meyerowitz, Joanne. “Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946- 1958.” The Journal of American History, vol. 79, no. 4, [Oxford University Press, Organization of American Historians], 1993, pp. 1455

[2] Ibid, pp.1455

[3] Ibid, pp.1445

[4] Keller, Kathryn. “Nurture and Work in the Middle Class: Imagery from Women’s Magazines.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, vol. 5, no. 4, Springer, 1992, pp.583

[5] Thompson, Caroline. “How to Be a Woman, According to 1960s Women's Magazines.” Vice, 2018

[6] Friedan, Betty, and Jennifer Chapin Harris. “Interview: After the Mystique Is Gone: A Phone Interview with Betty Friedan, March 19, 1997.” Off Our Backs, vol. 27, no. 9, off our backs, inc., 1997, pp.10

[7] Ibid, pp.10

[8] Meyerowitz, Joanne. “Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946- 1958.” The Journal of American History, vol. 79, no. 4, [Oxford University Press, Organization of American Historians], 1993, pp.1455