USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Her 1963 best-selling book, The Feminine Mystique, gave voice to millions of American women’s frustrations with their limited gender roles and helped spark widespread public activism for gender equality.

Detailed explanation-2: -Tetrault says that The Feminine Mystique not only fails to discuss how the cultural expectations of the idealized housewife also afflicted non-white and poor women who could not hope to achieve that standard, but it also doesn’t provide meaningful structural solutions that would help women.

Detailed explanation-3: -The phrase “feminine mystique” was coined by Friedan to describe the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. The prevailing belief was that women who were truly feminine should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions.

Detailed explanation-4: -The feminine mystique is the false notion that a woman’s “role” in society is to be a wife, mother, and housewife-nothing else. The mystique is an artificial idea of femininity that says having a career and/or fulfilling one’s individual potential somehow go against women’s pre-ordained role.