The Feelings of Betty Friedmans on Womens Rights in The Feminine Essay

The Feelings of Betty Friedmans on Womens Rights in The Feminine Mystique - Essay Example However, looking at her own experience, she felt there was something wrong with the situation that urged her to look deeper and to conclude that something was amiss somewhere. This book ignited the consciousness of women on their rights to their own happiness. The interrelationship between social factors. The Feminine Mystique published in the United States in 1963 became controversial because of its contents that were contradictory to the women’s femininity at that time. In this book, Betty Friedman argued that women suffered unhappiness on a problem that she said had no name. On this, Friedman presented several factors that she thought were the causes of this unhappiness. Her theory was that â€Å"women have been encouraged to confine themselves to the narrow roles of housewife and mother, forsaking education and career aspirations in the process.† The interrelationship between political factors. In the later years after the war, Betty Friedman observed women going back to domesticity in spite of the rights won thru the â€Å"feminist struggle†. She took note of this as coming from political campaign she called â€Å"counter-revolution† against women after the World War II. To prove her theory that the pre-conceived idea of a â€Å"Happy Housewife† was not true, she made a research that confirmed her assertions to be right. She wanted to correct the adage that â€Å"the woman’s place is in the home†. Many people countered her contentions, and sexual counter-revolution took place. For example, in the work of Reed, she cited â€Å"Penis Envy† became the popular â€Å"psychological catch-all†, and was â€Å"the answer to women’s resentment against their inferior status.† The interrelationship between historical factors and her work. The conflict of reality on the lives of women after the World War II and the propaganda of the Happy Housewife program of the government led Friedman to think of the â€Å"mystique† in relation to her own life.