The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan’s 1963 The Feminine Mystique is considered a classic text of feminist non-fiction. It was enormously influential in kick-starting the second wave of feminism, a movement that began in the 1960s advocating increased rights and new social roles for women. By voicing the despair that many women felt, The Feminine Mystique galvanized readers across the US to join the feminist movement and prompted others to at least to take its criticisms of mid-century American society more seriously.

While the book’s impact and historical significance is undeniable, contemporary commentators have critiqued some elements of its content. Friedan concentrates on the plight of the white middle- and upper-class housewife, almost entirely ignoring lower-class women and women of color. Feminist and social activist bell hooks famously criticized this narrow focus in the introduction to her 1984 book From Margin to Center, noting that Friedan wrote as if she were speaking of a universal female experience when in reality she was only speaking of a specific kind of woman. The Feminine Mystique has also drawn criticism for its negative tone toward gay men and women.

Formally, the book’s reliance on thinkers such as Freud, Margaret Mead, and

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