The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan Tuesday, 23 June 2020 16:17 Notes Introduction: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 57 years since publishing in 1963 Started a revolution - women found existence outside the home Demanding equality in the workplace and Kitchen conspiracy Incomplete rebuilding *It’s the men that have to break through to a new way of thinking about themselves and society The problem that had no name… Sexual assault being enough to take down a president Term: Personhood Check footnotes 1-5 Check statistics on women in labour force and wedges Sexual politics Men being forced out of the work place… more women providing the majority household income NOW - national organization for women What is the main battle now for women? Who's winning, who's losing? Betty Friedan - Introduction ○ Is it the education or the role that is wrong? ○ The mystique of feminine fulfilment Chapter 1: The Problem That Has No Name • PHT - Putting Husbands Through • "Women are out to fit the clothes, not the other way around." • The suburban house wife was the dream image of young American women and the envy of women around the world ○ Their only dream to be perfect wives and mothers • "The Second Sex" Simoni D. • What kind of women was she if she didn't feel satisficed waxing the kitchen flo • The housewife syndrome - the housewives blight d oor • The suburban house wife was the dream image of young American women and the envy of women around the world ○ Their only dream to be perfect wives and mothers • "The Second Sex" Simoni D. • What kind of women was she if she didn't feel satisficed waxing the kitchen floor • The housewife syndrome - the housewives blight • 1960 - the unhappiness of the trapped housewife was being reported • Blamed too much education making them unhappy in their role as a housewife • 1962 - the plight of the trapped American housewife • This is not what it means to be a women… • It is no longer possible today to blame the problem on lose of femininity • Women need more then their children and their husbands Chapter 2: The Happy Housewife Heroine • Suffering in silence (why?) • What need, what part of themselves could so many women today be repressing? • Does the image by which modern American women leave something out? • Questioning the articles in popular magazines - a portrayal of who a woman was supposed to be or relate to • Sex, babies and passion - where is the life of the mind • The confinement of a women's world • When did women decided to give up the world and go back home… • Story's for their daughters to go out into the world • Career women • Narrative changes in magazines to encourage women to be proud of being a housewife • "The Law of Sex" • The mistake in the past is was women trying to be like men… the new mystique makes the housewife mothers, who never had a chance to be anything else, the model for all women • The feminine mystique says that there is no other way for a women to be a heroine • (Are there any women magazines?) • The end of the road is the disappearance of the heroine altogether, as a separate self and the subject of our own story, the end of the road is togetherness, where a women has no independent self to hind even in guilt, she exist only for and through her husband and children • "A man's place is in the home" • The end of the road is the disappearance of the heroine altogether, as a separate self and the subject of our own story, the end of the road is togetherness, where a women has no independent self to hind even in guilt, she exist only for and through her husband and children • "A man's place is in the home" • Forbidden to join men in the world, can women be women? • 1957 - height of togetherness • Ideas are not like instincts - they are communicated by education and the printed word • The Actress (career women who was welcome) - from complexed individual a fiery temper, inner depth and a mysterious blend of spirit and sexual - sexual object, a baby faced bride, or house wife • *Material coming form women writers before the war, then when they came back the narrative changed • What percentage of the workforce do women hold • When a mystique is strong it makes its own fiction a fact • Why did women go home again? Chapter 3: The Crisis in Woman's Identity • The feminine mystique tells women that they don't need to answer the question about identity because it tells them who they are… • Thesis: The core of the problem is identity (lack of identity) perpetuated by the feminine mystique Chapter 4: The Passionate Journey • 1848 first women's rights convention • Judith Sargent " Woman needed knowledge to envision new goals and grow by reaching for them" • To become a wife was to die as a person • The feminist movement… • Those that lead the movement had more than common education • Feminist leaders… • M Carry Thomas (?) it was a man's world • 1907 - the movement was in a sterol rout • Jane Adams • Carry chapman pert • Women born after the 1920's the women's movement was dead - yet the man eating meth persisted (it ended with winning the vote) • Turning point in women's identity but what were they free to be? • Women are bond again to the home in the old image of glorified femininity, the same one that made women rebel in the first the man eating meth persisted (it ended with winning the vote) • Turning point in women's identity but what were they free to be? • Women are bond again to the home in the old image of glorified femininity, the same one that made women rebel in the first Chapter 5: The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud • The feminine mystique derived its power from Freudian thought, an idea born of Freud to lead women to misinterpret their husbands and sons and themselves • Without Freud's definition of the sexual nature of women; penis envy • Freud could not escape his own society bounds • The psychology of women • The masculinity complex stems from the female castration complex ○ True femininity comes from a women giving up all ambition beyond pleasing her father, husband or son. A woman achieving success outside of a man only does so at the expense of her femininity • Those that shaped the narrative; writers, ad agency's, tv and magazines Chapter 6: The Functional Freeze, the Feminine Protest, and Margaret Mead • Have we moved away from Freud's concept of a women? • Functionalism - family life • Feminine protest are made up a men and women who deny what a woman should be… and made it more than it every could be • Who girls learn to play the role of women… • Connected to how children are brought up, a boy given more freedom and responsibility outside the home vs girls • Keeping girls, girls… • Functionalism is embracing because it really said nothing at all • Women were being made less then their capability • Margaret Mead - of male and female • Social scientist have determined that being a women is being no more no less then being human Chapter 7: The Sex-Directed Educators • The idea of having a career and a family is relatively new? • 1959 - women still going to college but more interested in getting a husband so don't finish (Mona Lisa smile film) • Is education still unfeminine Chapter 7: The Sex-Directed Educators • The idea of having a career and a family is relatively new? • 1959 - women still going to college but more interested in getting a husband so don't finish (Mona Lisa smile film) • Is education still unfeminine • Higher education reinforced the Mystique • The women scholar was suspect • The sex-directed education - Women should be educated for their role as women • Gets in high schools, the portion of women in college dropping? • By actively educated women to their sexual function • Girls today have a choice between adjustment or individuality • Education for women does make them less feminine but it does make them grow Chapter 8: The Mistaken Choice • • • • • The choice between marriage and career The needs that made the mystique The effects of war Love, home, children or any other occupation When the war ended GI's came back to take the jobs and seats in colleges - resurgence of old anti feminine feeling made it difficult for a girl to keep or get a job • Women who worked showed that they lived in city's and had higher education Chapter 9: The Sexual Sell • Were femininity leaves women • The psychology of house keeping - Three categories: First - true housewife type; second - career women, third - balanced homemaker • The art of good homemaking should be the goal of every women • How the mystique acts in advertising Chapter 10: Housewifery Expands to Fill the Time Available • Suburban wives attempting suicide, drugs, extramarital affairs • (gifted and with higher education) The lives they were leading as housewives denied them the full use of their gifts • Could women be prevented from realizing their own capabilities by making their role in the home equal to mans role in society • The double depiction of the feminine mystique: #1 the more a women is deprived of function in society to the level of her own ability the housewives denied them the full use of their gifts • Could women be prevented from realizing their own capabilities by making their role in the home equal to mans role in society • The double depiction of the feminine mystique: #1 the more a women is deprived of function in society to the level of her own ability the more her housework will expand and the more she will resist doing the work. #2 the housework for any given women varies inversely to the challenges the women is given Chapter 11: The Sex-Seekers • Housewives having affairs to make them feel alive again • Again the perception in media and aids, over sexualization of women and then men • Male hostility towards women because of the feminine mystique Chapter 12: Progressive Dehumanization: The Comfortable Concentration Camp • • • • • How the mothers unhappiness effects the children Numbers of reasons this effects girls Mothers neglecting or over identifying with the children Love affairs with their children, then animals The mistaken choice between femaleness and humanness that is implied in the feminine mystique • When women are encouraged to grow to their full self the feminine mystique can be shattered Chapter 13: The Forfeited Self • Housewives lose sense of purpose • The need to grow to their potential • *Are women encouraged to reach their full potential and self realization? - only when women are allowed to reach their full potential and reach self realization will they find full fulfilment • High dominance or low dominance women • *Self actualizing people • Lack of work causing the problem that has no name • Women used to work along side their husbands, but when their work was no longer needed women's work decreased • Living death - American women must learn to take her life seriously • We measure ourselves by many standards • Fulfilling their own unique possibilities as separate human beings was no longer needed women's work decreased • Living death - American women must learn to take her life seriously • We measure ourselves by many standards • Fulfilling their own unique possibilities as separate human beings Chapter 14: A New Life Plan for Women • When society asks so little of women every women has to listen to her own inner voice to find her identity in the changing world • A work towards a great future • "I don't have to sew to prove I'm a women" • First; she must say "no" to the housewife image • See house work for what it is, not a career but something to be done a quickly a possible (save time to be used in better ways • Second; to see marriage as it is, brushing aside the vale of over glorification • She has to find herself as a person, by creative work of her own = equal to their actual capacity • Part of a life plan that she can grow in • Work that is of real value to society, that pays and implies a commitment to society • Education is key to the problem that has no name only when part of the plan for a new life • What do girls want to be now? • examples of working wives • Suggestions for how colleges and universities could accommodate housewives • Education or re-education of American women needs to happen on a much wider scale • There are still battles to be won for women • Expect this discrimination and fight it, don't adjust to prejudice and discrimination - compete as a human being • Every women who graduates and gets her PhD and goes on to use it or, helps other move on, every women who fights the remaining barriers makes it easier for others • Maternity leaves • Mutation = women doing it all; mother, wife and career woman - took part time jobs (my mom)
