Melissa Sparr
English 391
Senior Seminar Paper
Professor Ferguson
Due: 12/17/14
Final Project: Women Over Time
The role of women in society changes over time and has been changing more
rapidly in the last century. Over decades there is a noticeable and significant difference in
the way that women are active in society. One way in particular is the woman’s voice
being heard, specifically in the realm of the written word. The change in voice can be
seen in any article, journal, or novel. There have been female writers for hundreds of
years and they seem to have a similar theme and tone, which is being inferior to men.
Using keywords my goal is to determine the perception and actual role of women in a
male dominant world during specifically 1963. One key time frame to my project is the
1960s. My research will also include data and information from the 1920s-1940s, 1920s1970s, and 1970s to present day. I will analyze how the perception of a woman’s physical
appearance differs from their actual accomplishments. To determine the answer to the
question I will look at the voice of a woman in The Feminine Mystique by Bette Friedan.
Words are important to convey the main point of a text, but also for the reader to
engage with the text. My main question will be how often does Bette Friedan use the
words “feminine” and “mystique” in The Feminine Mystique? In what context does
Friedan use the words? Is this language used in other novels? Are the words “feminine”
Sparr 2
and “mystique” popular? Was there a psychological, emotional, economical, or
sociological reason for choosing these words as part of the title?
The key tools in aiding my project are Google Ngram Viewer and Voyant. Voyant
will help me address questions about popular language and whether or not mystique is a
popular word. Voyant will also be able to tell me the context that Bette Friedan uses
mystique in. Google Ngram Viewer will be able to determine how often or popular the
word “mystique” appears during different time periods. Google Ngram Viewer displays
the information in the form of a line graph, which I will interpret. One nice feature of
Google Ngram is that at the bottom of the webpage it says “Search in Google Books.”
This search will help the researcher access titles of books to use as information for a
project or their own basic knowledge.
Investigating such questions could point to whether women feel more comfortable
being surrounded by men or other women. This project will also showcase how the
language differs between a man and woman. This investigation will also focus on
whether or not women have become superior in a male dominant world. Specifically, I
would focus on whether or not equality has been achieved between the two sexes.
Therefore, women would be more active and not just be seen as homemakers that cook,
clean, and take care of the children. Women strive to be a part of religious debates,
financial issues, and politics. These main issues can also be seen in any of the three
sociological texts that I chose to use.
According to Google Ngram Viewer logistics show that from 1960-1970 there is a
general increase in how often the word, “mystique” is used. In 1963, which is the year
Bette Friedan’s book, Feminine Mystique was published, the word “mystique” was used
Sparr 3
0.0000939087%. Going into specifics how often the word “mystique” is used stabilizes
only from 1964-1965. Then, there is a decrease in how often “mystique” is used from the
years 1968-1969, but then there is a drastic increase to 1970. What influences how one
interprets this line graph is the smoothing. I personally prefer a smoothing of 0 or 2 in
order to see the best results. A smoothing of 0 shows the sharpness, by which I mean
exactness for a decrease or increase where a spacing of 2 shows a general trend.
From 1920-1940 the usage of the word “mystique” is extremely scattered with
highs and lows that are noticeable using a spacing of 0. The best spacing to interpret this
graph from a general perspective was 2. From 1920-1922 there is an increase in the usage
of the word “mystique” but it levels off at 1922. There is another increase, but then the
graph levels off at 1925. Then, there is a huge plunge in the usage of mystique from
1928, 1932. Generally, mystique means mystery or a feeling of suspense. From 19321936 there is an increase in mystique being used in the written world, but again the
graphs levels off from 1936-1937. Since the chart shows the usage of the word
“mystique” at a standstill this shows that men may have been on to women wanting to
Sparr 4
empower themselves in society. Then, the chart shows an increase to 1939 before
decreasing at 1940 to 0.0000146233%. Overall, there was an increase in the word
“mystique” being used during these twenty years, as in 1920 “mystique” was only used
0.0000042685%. This shows that over time women were becoming more mysterious. The
mysteriousness that women possessed was probably due to their plan of how to achieve
equality and have the same opportunities as men.
Again, from 1920-1970 the usage of the word “mystique” with a spacing of 0
shows drastic highs and lows. Using a spacing of 2 it is much more evident that there is
the trend of upward mobility during the 1920s-1970s. In 1920, the word “mystique” was
used 0.0000042685% and in 1970s the word “mystique” was used 0.0001430953%.
Sparr 5
Before even plugging in the years 1970-2014 on Google Ngram Viewer for the
word mystique one question that came to mind is how updated is this database? Is this
tool current and update is one issue I had to consider, but it did not surprise me that the
viewer only shows up to the year 2008. The information does not cover the past 6 years,
which is not that bad. However, the chart only shows up to 2005, which is 9 years ago.
The general trend of over 35 years is a drastic decrease in the word “mystique” being
used. What influenced this big change is something I am curious about and hope that
Voyant can answer it. Using a spacing of 2 to keep it relevant to all the other time frames
in 1970 the word “mystique” was used 0.0001517856% and in 1970 mystique was used
0.0000763512%. Even though the discrepancy between the box and actual chart is 3
years I believe the trend is still the same.
Sparr 6
Another important word to my research is “feminine,” as it is part of the title in
Bette Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique. Between 1960 and 1970 using spacing 0
there are several highs and low to how often the word, “feminine is used. However,
spacing 2 does show that there was an overall increase from 0.0007159559% in 1960 to
0.0008125561% in 1970. The year 1963, which was when Friedan’s book was published,
was at 0.0007244398% with spacing 2 for the word “feminine.”
Sparr 7
There is a minute difference of change over twenty years from 1920-1940. In
1920 the word “feminine was used 0.0007864096% to being used in 1940
0.0007926507%. There is a more noticeable increase in the word “feminine” being used
from 1928-1930.
It is odd that for the years 1920-1970 spacing 0 and 2 scrunched while showing
big ups and downs over fifty years. For the best interpretation I used spacing 5, as it
shows the highest point of the word “feminine” being used in 1931, which was
0.0009173943%. During those fifty years the usage of the word “feminine” decreased
from 0.0008120244 in 1920 to 0.0007690231 in 1970.
Sparr 8
Again, Google Ngram provides data up to 2008 in the box for the word
“feminine,” but the graph goes to 2005. In 1970 the word feminine was used
0.000880193% which generally increased to 0.0011576486% in 2005. However, the most
noticeable increase was between 1986-1995, as in 1995 the word “feminine” was used
0.0014530923%. At 2005, the graph cuts off information and it appears that the usage of
the word “feminine” is going to be at a standstill in the next coming years.
Sparr 9
The actual phrase “feminine mystique” is quite compelling to look at. Generally,
there is a dramatic increase in the phrase being used from 1960 to 1970. The popularity
of this phrase increases from 0.0000001365% to 0.0000025562%. Friedan appears to
exemplify that a women’s role as a homemaker is too limiting and that women need to be
assertive in achieving their goals and dreams.
Now, 1920-1940 is definitely interesting to look at because it shows the
popularity of the phrase the “feminine mystique” before Bette Friedan made it popular. In
1920-1923 the phrase was not used at all, but then in 1924-1928 it is used
0.0000000181%. In 1929 the phrase is used 0%. What is interesting about this numerical
statistic is that the usage of this phrase is diminished to nothing, as it is when the Great
Depression started. It is hard to determine whether this historical event had any influence
on the phrase “feminine mystique” being used, but it is something to consider. From
1932-1934 the phrase is used consistently at 0.0000000361% then, it decreases until it
hits 0 again at 1940. For all of these statistics the best spacing to use was the number 2.
Sparr 10
From 1920-1960, which is a good 40 years the usage of the phrase “feminine
mystique” is at a stalemate. It only begins to become popular at 1960, which is the decade
when Friedan’s book was written. There is a rapid increase in the phrase being used in
1960 at 0.0000000819% to 1970 at 0.0000028863%. This shows that women are
achieving their goal of having their voice heard in society, but more importantly no
longer being inferior to men. Again, a spacing of 2 was used for all of these results.
Sparr 11
From 1970-2014 with results only showing up to 2005 there is a general decrease
during approximately 40 years. There was a slight increase from 1970 at 0.0000086647%
to 1980, which was 0.0000088586%. There was a slight decrease in 1990, which was
0.0000083952%. The decrease became noticeable in 2000 “the millennium” as the phrase
“feminine mystique” was used 0.0000063773%. The decrease continued, as in 2005 this
phrase was used 0.0000059013%. For these results a spacing of 10 was used. I am
curious to see if the decrease continues, as I will have to check back in future years to see
the results. If I had to guess, I would say based on the trend that the phrase “feminine
mystique” has decreased because women are involved in all different occupations. This
means that some, if not all equality has been achieved. Women are no longer just
homemakers, but CEO’s, business administrators, teachers, doctors, news anchors, cops,
and sanitation workers.
For all of these statistics I did not choose case-insensitive because that would
present us with data of where “mystique” and “feminine” are titles, names of a place, or
names of a street, which we do not want. I want pure language in the usage of the word,
Sparr 12
“mystique” that is embedded in a text. Since the data present is 6-9 years old this leaves
room for the reader to determine how they think the context will change from those years
to 2014. Will the words “feminine,” “mystique,” and “feminine mystique” be used more
or less often? What are the reasons for this change? I believe that Google Ngram Viewer
will have more recent statistics when a full decade passes and we are in either 2015 or
2018 depending on whether they use the box year or graph year. If the data showed the
current year, 2014 then it might show the word “mystique” being used more often. One
way to interpret the word “mystique” being used in today’s society is through the movie
X-Men. The context of the word “mystique” in X-Men means that a woman can change
her appearance to anything she wants.
Again, my main goal is to determine whether or not women stand out
linguistically. I chose to use Bette Friedan as my main focus because she can be classified
as an activist for women’s rights, as she did no longer wanted women to feel oppressed.
Friedan’s text will help depict women in the fashion world, their work experience,
education, community work, and accomplishments. By analyzing the important words
“feminine” and “mystique”, I could track if there is a specific trend to see what changes
women experienced from one generation to another. It will also be interesting to see what
influence men had on women making a change in popular opinion.
While I did have some specific time periods in mind to investigate I also
experimented with other time frames just to see the results. Basically, it was trial and
error, as I did not know what the results would show and I couldn’t even imagine the
results we got. I did not think the word “feminine” would be used less in 1970 than in
1920. By 1970 women achieved the right to vote, had more of say in society, and
Sparr 13
technology evolved making it easier for women to achieve equality. The four different
time periods: 1960-1970, 1920-1940, 1920-1970, and 1970-2005 were the most
interesting and relevant to my corpus.
With my corpus there are a lot of specific questions to be addressed. Compared to
the bigram “feminine mystique” the singular words “mystique” and “feminine” were
more popular. The word “feminine” was the most popular. While the words did exist
before 1963, which is when The Feminine Mystique was published, it is only until Bette
Friedan used it that it became popular. The trend of the words “feminine” and
“mystique” is important because it lends to the style of the work regardless of the
genre. The word “feminine” can be seen as part of a title in books such as Todd
McGowan’s The Feminine No: Psychoanalysis and the New Canon,” which was
published in 2001 or Carol R. Frenier’s Business and the Feminine Principle, which
was published in 1997. The word “mystique” can be seen as part of a title in books
such as Diana Hoguet’s The Wasp Mystique, which was published in 1987 or Mark
Caldwell’s New York Night: The Mystique and Its History, which was published in
2005. The words “feminine” and “mystique” are part of several, if not thousands of
other titles of all different genres. What is nice about using Google Ngram Viewer is
that through our screen captures or own utilization of information a person can eyeball
the chart/data making a general rather than specific interpretation.