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The cover of The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan names the unspoken unhappiness of 1950s American housewives, traces it to magazines, Freudian theory, social science and advertising, and sketches a new life plan of education and work.

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17 parts, about 32 minutes to read.

At a glance

Author
Betty Friedan
Parts
17 parts
Reading time
about 32 minutes
The whole book
Also to read in full

What the summary covers

  1. How the Question Began2 min
  2. The Problem That Has No Name3 min
  3. Explaining the Problem Away2 min
  4. The Happy Housewife Heroine3 min
  5. A Crisis of Identity1 min
  6. The Passionate Journey1 min
  7. Freud's Victorian Lens1 min
  8. Social Science Freezes Woman's Role2 min
  9. Educators Who Taught Girls Not to Try2 min
  10. Why Women Went Back Home2 min
  11. Selling to the Housewife1 min
  12. Housework Expands to Fill the Day1 min
  13. Sex as the Only Frontier2 min
  14. The Comfortable Concentration Camp3 min
  15. The Need to Grow2 min
  16. A New Life Plan for Women2 min
  17. From a Book to a Movement2 min

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperCareer and Family

    Friedan urges women to combine purposeful work with family life. Goldin adds how jobs rewarding constant availability disproportionately make couples pay an income price for sharing care equally.

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