The ‘feminine mystique’: how it set-off second-wave feminism in the West Premium

explaining the concept of feminine mystique introduced by Betty Friedan which set off the second wave feminist movement in America

Feminine mystique was one of the most influential concepts in the feminist movement, known to have triggered second-wave feminism in the U.S. in the 1960s. The concept was introduced by Betty Friedan in her 1963 best-seller book titled The Feminine Mystique. The term described the societal assumption that women found fulfilment through their gendered roles alone. Drawing attention to women’s magazines and educational institutions that romanticised the homemaker-mother images of a woman, Friedan’s book discussed the dissatisfaction and discontent among women, in trying to fit into the media’s portrayal of a “perfect woman”. The concept restricted women to the role of a happy housewife even when they could be freed from domestic work to pursue their dreams with the help of modern appliances and technology that reduced domestic labour — an option the women from their previous generations did not have.

After World War II, the men returned from the war. Women who up until then had filled the men’s shoes, working outside and earning a living while the men were away, were now expected to go back to their feminine roles as obedient wives and homemakers. From there sprung the artificial concept of the feminine mystique. Men who returned expected women to be at their beck and expected complete devotion and nurturing from them. Moreover, in the 1950s, during the Cold War between America and Soviet Russia, the cultivation of a perfect nuclear family and the idealised image of a happy suburban housewife was part of a larger ideological battle between the two nations. And women, especially white women from the middle class were weaponised in this battle in representing a superior American society which idealised femininity and family life.

As explained by Friedan in the chapter ‘The Happy Housewife Heroine’, according to the mystique, the West has undervalued the virtues of femininity. The concept romanticises the notion of femininity and urges women to accept their feminine nature that could be fulfiled only through sexual passivity, male domination, and nurturing maternal love. It criticises women’s attempts to be ‘masculine’ — to earn, or fulfil goals that were not feminine instead of accepting the virtuous mystique-approved roles.

Interestingly, the mystique was portrayed, through media and magazines, to be a new phenomenon that idealised the notion of a perfect housewife who was satisfied with domestic life. Yet, this concept was as old as time, since the aim was to restrict women to their gendered roles, limiting their dreams to the kitchen floor and home nurseries.

In her book, Friedan looks at the idealised version of women presented in women’s magazines that confined women to roles that the mystique found appropriate for them. Even when it was revealed that women felt unfulfiled in their gendered roles, it was attributed to education or lack of sexual fulfilment. Freudian theories also blamed women for their incompetence in not living up to idealised standards of the feminine and cited it as the reason behind their dissatisfaction.

Statistics revealed that by the end of the 1950s, more women were getting married at a younger age, bringing down the average age to 20. More women had dropped out of college and it was shown that they desired to fit into the standards of the mystique. Yet, in interviews, there was growing dissatisfaction among middle-class women as many could not find contentment in just serving the needs of their husbands and families. This dissatisfaction with being unable to live up to the ‘mystique’ pushed women into addiction, depression and a sense of emptiness. And thus, Friedan disputed the mystique and blamed it for women’s unhappiness, which she described as a “problem that has no name.”

Though the concept influenced many feminist movements, it was not without flaws. It came under heavy criticism for the false vantage point the author claimed (that of a suburban housewife and mother while she was a radical leftist) and for being a concept that catered to a select group of women. Black feminist scholar Bell Hooks, in her book From Margin to Center, explains how Friedan’s book gave a one-dimensional perspective of women’s reality that did not address universal problems women faced. According to her, it was racist and classist to portray the issues faced by middle-class women as representing the whole of American society. The concept failed to address the problems faced by women of colour and working-class women who had to join the labour force out of financial need and did not have the option of remaining housewives.