The Problem that Has No Name (Penguin Modern)

by Betty Friedan

[clementine]

One of my weird niche interests is the banality of housewifery, and I especially love narratives where bored housewives develop strange, psychosomatic disorders as a result of their bored housewifery. These two essays - which are part of Friedan's seminal book The Feminine Mystique - tie into that perfectly. The first essay is about how after the dust from the first wave of feminism had settled the overwhelming cultural attitude was that woman would find fulfilment through marriage and child-rearing. Friedan exposes how housewives were bored, unhappy, and unsatisfied - a widespread problem that was usually only discussed on an individual level and not as a sociological phenomenon. She also discusses how many of these women did develop strange, inexplicable symptoms such as exhaustion and hives. The second essay is a history of first-wave feminism. Friedan maps out how early feminists pushed for women to have educations and careers. The context in which she was writing felt like a regression after early feminists ultimately won these rights.

They're fascinating essays, and Friedan writes with such a compelling sense of urgency. So much has changed in society since The Feminine Mystique was written - it is now common and even expected for women to go to university and have careers - but there's still something poignant about the essays. The question now is not whether a life made up of chores and childrearing is fulfilling - it's whether women are better off now that we "have it all". It seems that women's happiness hasn't increased even as we gain rights. There is still a sense of ennui that seems to permeate womanhood. And, anecdotally, it seems that after second-wave feminism helped women become educated, skilled professionals, there is another period of regression. My mom's generation of women had kids in their 30s and kept their names when they got married - but a shocking number of my peers are having children in their early- to mid-twenties, and almost all of my married acquaintances have changed their last names. I'm not here to condemn them or say that these are inherently negative things, but it is interesting that the metrics by which we may measure feminist penetration of societal consciousness come in waves. So although the obligatory housewifery of Friedan's era isn't so relevant to our current context, the larger themes she's meditating on do still seem, to some degree, prescient and worth considering.