“Is this all?”Betty Friedan

(Political Science 110EB)

3 Waves of Feminism

• First wave: 1848 ~ 1915– Equality before the law: Vote, contract, property,

legal recognition• Second wave: ~1960 ~ 1990– Equality in economy, society, & politics: Jobs, pay,

reproductive rights, representation, rape, image, misogyny, affirmation of womanhood

• Third wave: ~1990 – present– Postmodern critiques of gender as such. Emphasis on

cultural, sexual diversity, queer rights.

Betty Friedan• 1921-2006• Labor union journalist, fired for

second pregnancy• 1963: Feminine Mystique,

kickstarts second wave of feminism

• 1966: Co-founds, is first president of National Organization for Women

• 1970s: Founds National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws/NARAL, supports Equal Rights Amendment

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Themes

• Equality• False consciousness– The definition of happiness

• Contempt & self-contempt– Defining women in such a way that even women

cannot help but to think of themselves as inferior– Similar to argument found in Du Bois, Malcolm X

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The view of the 1st wave• Women have “a higher and holier mission” in the

home. (145)– And outside of politics & economy

• “man-hating, embittered, sex-starved spinsters… castrating, unsexed non-women who burned with such envy for the male organ that they wanted to take it away from all men, or destroy them, demanding rights only because they lacked the power to love as women.” (139)– A permanent stereotype– Compare: immigrants

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Capturing the past

• In the society which Friedan describes, the career woman is seen as “that fatal error that feminism propagated”, inherently unhappy, perhaps even neurotic– The ideal of an outmoded past– But still something that must be defeated– Creating a new traditional

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Capturing the past

• Real women, by contrast, cherish ‘their differentness’, their ‘unique femininity’, the ‘receptivity and passivity implicit in their sexual nature’. Devoted to beauty and family, they are “’feminine women, with truly feminine attitudes, admired by men for their miraculous, God-given, sensationally unique ability to wear skirts, with all the implications of that fact.’” (111)

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The Feminine Mystique

• “The highest value and the only commitment for women is the fulfillment of their own femininity.”– Historically, this femininity has been undervalued.– Women are special and different, not inferior to

men, & in some ways superior– Innocent, helpless, childlike– These special qualities are expressed in terms of

beauty, sex, and caretaking.• Cook, clean, children, clothes, attraction

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The Feminine Mystique• This is an essentialist definition of femininity– ‘To be a woman is to act like so’– To be otherwise is to be unfeminine, not-woman– To look to compete with men on equal terms thus means

that one wants to be a man– Careers and goals for higher education in this way serve to

‘masculinize’ women, making them less feminine (less women) and rendering them unhappy in their lives.

– The claim made by the mystique is that a real woman would be happy in (and only in) a purely domestic role• “I’ll cancel your lunch orders. You’re a mother. That’s your job.

You don’t have to earn money too.” It was all so beautifully simple! “Yes, boss.” I murmured obediently, frankly relieved. (95)

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• “Remember when we were all children, how we all planned to ‘be something?’” Boasting that she has worn out six copies of Dr. Spock’s baby-care book in seven years, she cries, “I’m lucky! Lucky! I’M SO GLAD TO BE A WOMAN!” (114)

• Shirley Jackson: “After making the bed of a twelve-year-old boy week after week, climbing Mt. Everest would seem a laughable anticlimax”– “Woman” seen and defined in a purely

biological/sexual light

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• “There is no problem in the logic of the feminine mystique, for the woman who has no wishes of her own, who defines herself only as wife and mother.” (116)– “But forbidden to join man in the world, can

women be people?” (100)

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• Later generations of women abandoned the first wave of feminism, “But what choice were they offered? In that corner, the fiery, man-eating feminist, the career woman—loveless, alone. In this corner, the gentle wife and mother—loved and protected by her husband, surrounded by her adoring children.” (164)– But this is a false choice.

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• In the 1st wave era, when women began to be seen as equals, anything that hindered equality was seen as an obstacle to be overcome, but now that woman is seen only as a sexual & domestic being, those prejudices are no longer problems.– The only problems are those that disturb her role

in the home– Second Shift - Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung

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• The lives of women revolve entirely around men: “They though they did not have to choose, to look into the future and plan what they wanted to do with their lives. They had only to wait to be chosen…” (133)– Sex and the City

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• The goal of feminism is, for Friedan, the freedom to make “the decision as to what one is going to be,” which has traditionally been reserved for men. (134)

• The struggle is “simply to become fully human.” (136)– Positive freedom

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