Summary Of The Problem That Has No Name By Betty Friedan

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Comparing the Friedan reading to the articles within the Women’s Magazine, a clear line is drawn in the controversy over what is and should be a woman’s role in the United States. Within the Women’s Magazine, it asserts that women are to abide by and respect the role expected of them by society. This role is limited in not only work opportunities, but in their very own freedom itself. For these articles ranging between 1940 to 1960, it argues that by giving up these freedoms, it will actually contribute to reaching self-actualization. This idea is remarkably different than what is presented in the Friedan reading. In Betty Friedan’s book titled, The Problem That Has No Name, it takes a more realistic approach to the impact society’s expectations had on not only women but on the country as a whole. To start, Friedan writes that these social pressures created the sentiment for many women that, “they could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity” (15). This, in turn, led women to race towards what they believed …show more content…

Everywhere she turned, she was met with criticism over her parenting, her relationship, and her home. If she sought out more, she was to be met with backlash (30). The expectations held for women were, “chains made up of mistaken ideas and misinterpreted facts, of incomplete truths and unreal choices. They are not easily seen and not easily shaken off” (31). Friedan argues that the absolute problem in the United States stems from ignoring the woman’s voice. She believes that rather than placing blame on the “loss of femininity, too much education, or the demands of domesticity” it is essential to understand that women deserve more than just their husband, child, and their home (32). Women deserve to seek out and acquire their own individual version of self-actualization, and in doing so, will overcome the “feminine

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