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The Feminine Mystique Summary

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Betty Friedan was a pioneering feminist leader whose impact on the women's movement of the 20th century cannot be overstated. Her seminal book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, helped to ignite the second wave of feminism and challenged the prevailing assumptions about women's roles in society. This essay will examine the life and work of Betty Friedan, drawing on three reliable sources to analyze her impact on the feminist movement and her ongoing legacy.

Betty Friedan's life and career as a feminist activist and writer began long before the publication of The Feminine Mystique. According to Chafe (2011), Friedan was deeply influenced by her experiences as a student at Smith College in the 1940s, where she encountered pervasive sexism and was discouraged from pursuing her intellectual interests. After graduation, she worked as a journalist and union organizer, and in 1966, she helped found the National Organization for Women (NOW), a key institution of the feminist movement. Chafe argues that Friedan's early experiences of sexism and her political activism laid the groundwork for her later work as a feminist theorist. …show more content…

According to Horowitz (2013), the book was a groundbreaking analysis of the ways in which women were restricted by the cultural expectations of domesticity and motherhood. Friedan argued that women were being sold a "mystique" of feminine fulfillment that was actually limiting and oppressive. Horowitz notes that the book was controversial and sparked intense debate, but also became a bestseller and a rallying cry for the women's

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