The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique is a book by the American author Betty Friedan, first published by W. W. Norton in 1963 and widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. It grew from a survey Friedan made in 1957 of her former Smith College classmates, many of whom were unhappy with their lives as housewives, and from interviews with other suburban housewives and research into psychology, media and advertising. Friedan coined the phrase feminine mystique for the assumption that women would be fulfilled by housework, marriage, sexual lives and children. A bestseller, it was criticised for focusing on white, middle-class women.