Betty Friedan & Domesticity

• Betty Friedan, a Smith College graduate and suburban housewife, drew attention to the dissatisfaction of many middle-class housewives with domesticity


  1963
• Women's magazines, films and advertisements in the 1950's promoted domesticity as the norm and the ideal
• Girls were encouraged to play with dolls, to emphasise their femininity and play down their intellectual capacity
• Some women took refuge in tranquillisers or alcohol
• 'The problem with no name'- Feminine Mystique 1963


  Destiny required focusing on the needs of their children and husbands rather than their own needs
• Friedan urged women to break free from this and fulfil their potential through education and work