Response 8

The feminine mystique describes a powerful message about the importance of women constantly being dissatisfied. The idea that women could find fulfillment through housework, marriage and other things of the sort has become normalized for years and years. Simply assuming women have no desire for higher education or to participate in a career field is presumably the thought departing women from men. Throughout time, this term has developed differently in several ways however many people and men believe this objective still applies. Friedan maintained her critique and voiced her opinion on the feminine mystique affecting women personally due to identity being massive through career and success. This expectation has been studied and women have always been looked at to perform feminine motherly activities, while men handled the bigger jobs and participated in masculine fields. She defended her claim with statistics that illustrated the feminine mystique. 

The media and people often perpetuate the feminine mystique to be true, as many may continue to believe nurturing feminine activities are for women and the masculine jobs are for men. Furthermore, according to the article, it articulates the idea that women would be happily satisfied as a housewife and mother, only concerned about her husband, children and home. It also states fifteen years after World War II, the mystique of feminine fulfillment became the self-perpetuating core of contemporary American culture as women lived the picture perfect life of kissing their husbands goodbye and doing chores around the house. For over many years, women began to question their worth and question the intention of their tasks, yearning for more and feeling neglected in the bigger fields. This problem was unspoken of and for a long time, no one did anything about it because of how normalized it became. Being raised and brought up as women centuries ago, that’s all you were taught to be. A simple housewife, cleaning after your husband and children and how to keep them from dying young and their sons from growing into delinquents. 

This idea had a major impact and spoke levels, to this day women are still fighting to break the barrier that marriage and children is sufficient enough to make a woman happy. More and more women have come forward being in these situations and not feeling happy at all, as the video states. Women have constantly been trying to figure out how exactly to fulfill their needs and break out of this idea that has always been so heavily influenced. There are still many battles to fight for women and their equality in America and these issues should no longer be foreshadowed or be ignored. Men shy away from women working in the stronger fields alongside everyone else due to fear of competition. If women continue the idea of being housewives and working inside the house, as men work outside, there would be no “competition.” In our society, many have voiced their concern and empathy towards this topic and it is still something women face everyday, where people stereotype them to do house work and work in the kitchen constantly but that is not the case and should have never been.

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