The Feminine Mystique

In 1957, Betty Friedan surveyed her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion. Expecting to find satisfied graduates, she instead discovered a "problem that has no name"—a pervasive sense of emptiness among women who had husbands, children, and material comfort. Despite living in what the 1950s defined as "perfection," these women felt like they were disappearing into their domestic roles.

This dissatisfaction was misunderstood as an individual pathology rather than a systemic issue. Because American culture insisted that a woman's fulfillment lay solely in being a housewife and mother, those who felt unfulfilled believed they were "sick" or "monstrous." Friedan argued that this wasn't a medical or psychological failing of the individual, but an existential crisis: a "voice within women that says: 'I want something more.'"

Friedan coined the term "feminine mystique" to describe the set of assumptions that women were naturally fulfilled by housework and marriage. She observed that this was a radical departure from the 1930s, when women's magazines often featured independent, career-focused heroines. By the 1950s, male editors had replaced those models with images of the "happy housewife," while advertisers "professionalized" domestic chores to sell more cleaning products to women who now had nothing else to do.

Education systems followed suit. Schools began offering "non-challenging" classes focused on marriage and family, fearing that too much intellectual stimulation would spoil a woman's "femininity." This cultural machinery effectively arrested women in a state of permanent adolescence, preventing them from facing the identity crises necessary for adult maturation.

The book takes aim at Sigmund Freud, whose influential theories suggested that "anatomy is destiny." Friedan argued that Freud's unproven concept of "penis envy" was weaponized to label any woman seeking a career as "neurotic." By elevating these ideas to a kind of "scientific religion," society made it nearly impossible for women to criticize their domestic confinement without being branded as biologically defective.

She also attacked "functionalism," a social science trend that studied society like a biological organism. Functionalists argued that for society to remain stable, women had to remain in their sexual and biological roles as mothers. Friedan pointed out the hypocrisy of this "balance," noting that prominent functionalists like Margaret Mead enjoyed flourishing careers while telling other women that such ambitions would upset the social order.

The impact of the book was seismic, selling over three million copies and directly sparking "second-wave feminism." It led to the founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which demanded that women be treated first and foremost as human beings with "identity and autonomy." Futurist Alvin Toffler famously stated that the book "pulled the trigger on history."

However, the book faced immediate and lasting criticism for its blind spots. Friedan wrote almost exclusively about the plight of white, middle-class, suburban women. By framing the "housewife's trap" as the primary female struggle, she overlooked the experiences of women of color and working-class women for whom the "luxury" of staying home was never an option. Additionally, many women who truly found joy in domesticity felt devalued and insulted by Friedan’s characterization of their lives.