Abstract

BLOCH, Avital H.. Betty Friedan: women's work, post WWII liberalism, and the origins of women's liberation in the United States. Sig. his [online]. 2013, vol.15, n.30, pp.64-106. ISSN 1665-4420.

In this article I analyze Betty Friedan's main work, The Feminine Mystique (1963). I explore her descriptions of the homemaker who dedicates her work, energy, and indeed her adult life, to her husband, children, and home. Friedan's study on the question of the domestic labor of housewives was based on a blend of prewar Old Left Marxist views and the growing influence of the dominant anti-radical liberal ideology in the 1950s, as contemporary academics and social commentators had articulated these views. The essay examines how Friedan's social, psychological, and economic approach simultaneously subverted and validated the social sciences and the competing ideologies of the time. Crossing boundaries enabled Friedan to become a "transitional bridge figure" between generations.

Keywords : Betty Friedan; housewife; labor; Liberalism; Marxism.