The Feminine Mystique (published by Cátedra ) is a non-fiction book written by the American theorist and activist Betty Friedan . First published in 1963 , it is a seminal feminist essay and a leading work on the subject. Along with Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949), it is one of the most prominent texts on feminism.
This book describes and reflects on the concept of gender equality, as well as the unease produced by a distorted image of women during the decades of second-wave feminism (1950-1990). A work from the 60s that remains highly relevant and undoubtedly knows how to delve into the feminine experience.
The mystique of femininity: how to delve into the feminine
What is the mystique of femininity?
In the 50s, following World War II, the image of women adapted to the new situation of society and the families that comprised it. The expectation was that women would be maternal figures, caring for their children and also their husbands , whom they were expected to respect and follow, while simultaneously providing him with pleasure and contentment. Women were expected to take care of themselves and project a feminine image (the feminine, that mystique of femininity that Friedan discusses) that would please the family. They existed for and dedicated to their families, but they were not to let their appearance become unkempt; they were to maintain the attributes defined for women.
In this context, Friedan speaks of an image of femininity assigned to and accepted by women themselves, the mystique of femininity . Advertising images, magazine content, and the patterns disseminated for them within a rigid morality that subordinated women to domestic and family duties simultaneously weakened these human beings.
Evidence of this is the unease generated by this systematic behavior. Friedan describes it as "the unnameable malaise," which is there, hanging in the air, preventing women from making their own decisions (not even regarding how they dressed). The consequences included various physical symptoms, such as anxiety, neurosis, addictions, a profound sense of loneliness and incomprehension, and, in the worst cases, suicide.
Forced into social relationships that had nothing to do with them as individual people , they had, in conclusion, to respond to stereotypes that were everywhere at a time when feminist consciousness had been forgotten by the decades and the eruption of the second great war conflict of the 20th century.
Inequality, after all
There was a profound gender role gap rooted in the sexual division of labor . Because they were women, they were also expected to express sexuality, albeit within the confines of the home and marriage. Friedan discusses in her book the sex addiction many of these women developed, obsessed with fulfilling these expectations. All of this signified profound inequality, after all. And these women suffered in silence.
Family was the true path, they said, to happiness for women, and so many of them felt unable to understand why they felt incomplete and sad . Constant dissatisfaction and a vague sense of not knowing what they wanted (a product of this deprivation of their own identity) shaped the reality for many of them.
The book can be understood within its historical context, but the author's meticulous study, presented throughout its chapters, remains relevant today. The unease Friedan described in the 1960s continues to affect women in the 21st century . However, there is now greater awareness and more widespread critical thinking.
Conclusions
A book that studies the inequality faced by women and analyzes the stereotypical image of them and the unease it caused in these marginalized individuals. The construction of a feminine image through imposition is what The Feminine Mystique describes . This inequality stemmed from the education women received. They might be able to work, vote, drive, or go to university. But afterward, an existential void emerged , which Betty Friedan has been able to identify and explain to women around the world, and especially to American women of the 60s and those who followed.
Thanks to this book, we can delve deeper into the history of feminism . It is a book by a humanist that aims to better understand and enable the transformation of society in its entirety.
About the author
Betty Naomi Goldstein, better known as Betty Friedan, was born in Illinois in 1921. She was the daughter of Russian and Hungarian immigrants. She studied psychology at Smith College in Massachusetts and later attended the prestigious University of California, Berkeley, where she pursued postgraduate studies. She worked as a writer and editor . Surprisingly, she married and gave up many things for love. Her experience as a woman in her youth, as well as her mother's life (who abandoned her career for her family), would definitively shape her ideological stance and thinking.
She was a feminist theorist who fought for women's rights and gender equality . She was also a pioneer of her time, actively involved in the feminist movement of the 60s. She articulated her theoretical thought in * The Feminine Mystique* , a work that can easily be considered one of the most influential of the last century. Other important works of hers, translated into Spanish, include * The Second Phase * (1983), * The Fountain of Age* (1993), and * My Life So Far* (2003) . She died in 2006 at the age of 85.