Second-wave feminism: Difference between revisions

In 1963, Betty Friedan, influenced by Simone de Beauvoir's ground-breaking, feminist ''The Second Sex'', wrote the bestselling book ''The Feminine Mystique.''. Discussing primarily white women, she explicitly objected to how women were depicted in the mainstream media, and how placing them at home (as 'housewives') limited their possibilities and wasted potential. She had helped conduct a very important survey using her old classmates from [[Smith College]]. This survey revealed that the women who work in the workforce while also playing a role in the home were more satisfied with their life compared with the women who stayed home. The women who stayed home showed feelings of agitation and sadness. She concluded that many of these unhappy women had immersed themselves in the idea that they should not have any ambitions outside their home.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |title=The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present |last=Hunt |first=Michael |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-937102-0 |location=New York |pages=220, 221}}</ref> Friedan described this as "The Problem That Has No Name".<ref>DuBois and Dumenil. ''Through Women's Eyes: An American History Since 1865''. (Bedford; St Martin's, New York)</ref> The perfect [[nuclear family]] image depicted and strongly marketed at the time, she wrote, did not reflect happiness and was rather degrading for women.<ref>{{cite book |last=Epstein |first=Cynthia Fuchs |date=1988 |title=Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender, and the Social Order |location=New Haven |publisher=[[Yale University Press]]}}</ref> This book is widely credited with having begun second-wave feminism in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/betty-friedan-465800.html |location=London |work=[[The Independent]] |first=Corinne |last=Sweet |title=Betty Friedan |date=February 7, 2006}}</ref> The problems of the nuclear family in America are also heteronormative and is utilized often as a marketing strategy to sell goods within a capitalist driven society.<ref>Snider, Ashton R., "Heteronormativity and the Ideal Family" (2016). Theses. 220. https://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/220</ref>