Primary Source Analysis The Feminine Mystique 
Potter 1
Rebecca Potter
Gray
Section 4975
12 May 2015
Primary Source Analysis on The Feminine Mystique The Feminine Mystique is the title of a book written by Betty Friedan who has also founded The National Organization for Women (NOW) to help US women gain equal rights. She describes the "Feminine Mystique" as the heightened awareness of the expectations of women and how each woman has to fit a certain role as a little girl, an uneducated and unemployed teenager, and finally as a wife and mother who is happy to clean the house and cook things all day. After World War II, a lot of women's organizations began to appear with the goal of bringing the issues of equal rights into the limelight. The Feminine Mystique also seems to come from her determination to locate the deeper causes of the frustration that she and women like her feel. There are countless stereotypes mentioned in the book. The stereotypes even come down to the color of a woman's hair. Many women wish that they could be blonde because that was the ideal hair color. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan writes that "across America, three out of every ten women dyed their hair blonde " (182). This serves as an example of how there is/was such a push for women to fit a certain mold which is portrayed as the role of women. Blacks were naturally excluded from the notion of ideal women and they suffered additional discrimination which was even greater than that which the white women suffered from. In addition to hair color, women often went to great lengths to achieve a thin figure. The look that
Potter 2 women were striving for was the look of the thin model. Many women wore tight, uncomfortable clothing in order to create the illusion of being thinner and some even took pills that were supposed to make them lose weight, which is even still a problem today. The role of women was to find a husband to support the family that they would raise. Many women dropped out of college or never
Rebecca Potter
Gray
Section 4975
12 May 2015
Primary Source Analysis on The Feminine Mystique The Feminine Mystique is the title of a book written by Betty Friedan who has also founded The National Organization for Women (NOW) to help US women gain equal rights. She describes the "Feminine Mystique" as the heightened awareness of the expectations of women and how each woman has to fit a certain role as a little girl, an uneducated and unemployed teenager, and finally as a wife and mother who is happy to clean the house and cook things all day. After World War II, a lot of women's organizations began to appear with the goal of bringing the issues of equal rights into the limelight. The Feminine Mystique also seems to come from her determination to locate the deeper causes of the frustration that she and women like her feel. There are countless stereotypes mentioned in the book. The stereotypes even come down to the color of a woman's hair. Many women wish that they could be blonde because that was the ideal hair color. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan writes that "across America, three out of every ten women dyed their hair blonde " (182). This serves as an example of how there is/was such a push for women to fit a certain mold which is portrayed as the role of women. Blacks were naturally excluded from the notion of ideal women and they suffered additional discrimination which was even greater than that which the white women suffered from. In addition to hair color, women often went to great lengths to achieve a thin figure. The look that
Potter 2 women were striving for was the look of the thin model. Many women wore tight, uncomfortable clothing in order to create the illusion of being thinner and some even took pills that were supposed to make them lose weight, which is even still a problem today. The role of women was to find a husband to support the family that they would raise. Many women dropped out of college or never