For their activism and dismissal of traditional modes of femininity, they were branded as “man-hating.” The early feminists, such as Lucy Stone, had discovered their plights through their work to end slavery.

However, history had maligned the reputation of the early feminists, leading their descendants to distance themselves from their images as independent, intellectual, and politically-active women. Many of the mothers and grandmothers of Eisenhower era housewives had been suffragists who protested for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. In fact, they had played from active roles in American life throughout history. Women had not always identified as housewives. By turning housework into a job and labeling their “occupations” as housewives, Friedan believed that they were turning chores-tasks that a child could perform-into their life’s purpose, to their own detriments. Social experiments and studies revealed that housewives were spending excessive time on housework to make up for feelings of boredom and to provide them with a sense of achievement. Though appliances were designed to reduce the amount of time spent on housework, homemakers still tended to spend more time on housework. Through her interviews with researchers and “manipulators”-advertising consultants who exploited housewives’ feelings of inadequacy and boredom to sell them products-Friedan uncovered the ways in which ad firms sought to perpetuate the feminine mystique with the aim of ensuring that housewives, who were the most important American consumers, would continue to buy household products. The “happy housewife” was an enthusiastic consumer who spent her days in department stores and supermarkets buying the latest appliances and cleaning supplies. Friedan notes the complicity of the media in promoting the feminine mystique and for blaming women’s serious emotional problems on small, mundane matters, such as “incompetent repairmen.” Worse, advertisers and women’s magazines promoted an ideal of femininity- “ the happy housewife” heroine-with which many white, suburban women tried to identify.

Some thought that there was something wrong with them for not being satisfied with their lives. She decided to expand her study and noticed that women all over the nation were reporting similar feelings of boredom and dissatisfaction, despite the belief that suburban women had ideal, comfortable lives. Friedan first recognized the problem during a visit to her alma mater, Smith College, when she conducted an informal survey among fellow alumnae who reported discontent with their post-graduate lives. Friedan begins her study of the lives of presumably white, middle-class women in suburban postwar America through her exploration of the problem that has no name.

The feminine mystique was written by