Feminism: The Problem That Has No Name

Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan's literary work, The Feminine Mystique, helped many women identify the "problem that has no name," actually after reading her famous work many women knew exactly what to name the problem--"sexism." This manifesto for change took the nation by storm startling a society that expected women to be happy with marriage and children. Finally, women were able to look at their lives in new ways and understand that power was within their united voices. According to Friedan, "A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children. It was this new wave of thought that provoked the bygone ideals of the yester-years in American culture.

Betty Friedan: Women Unite NOW

According to Griffith and Baker "The transformation sought by the new feminist would encounter strong opposition: the resistance of men and a male-dominated institutions, the sharp limits to change imposed by class and race, and the mobilization of social conservatives by the New Right." No longer would women have to  feel trapped by a society that did not value their intellect. Friedan unexpectedly found fame, she stated in an interview with Time Magazine," I never set out to write a book to change women's lives, to change history. It's like, 'Who, me?' Yes, me. I did it. And I'm not that different from other women. ... Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was the truth of every woman." Her book became an instant and controversial bestseller, and Friedan became the leading spokeswoman for a revitalized women's movement.

Citations:

 Griffith, Robert. "From the Feminine Mystique to "Second Wave" Feminism." Major Problems in American History since 1945. [S.l.]: Wadsworth, 2013. Print.