McKenna Dean

History 2112
Document Analysis #2
Word Count: 538
Betty Friedan: The Problem That Has No Name
Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in 1963 to discuss the roles of women in the
united States in the 50s and 60s and how they felt about these roles. The Problem That Has No
Name is an excerpt from chapter one of this book and it discusses how women felt about the
common housewife lifestyle that they lived. Betty Friedan was forced to have this job of
housewife because she was fired from her job after becoming pregnant with her second child.
Friedan wrote this book to discover if other women felt as restless as she did as she did her duties
as a housewife (biography.com). Friedan was writing this book to all of America, on behalf of
women. She wanted the public to understand how women really felt, even if the majority of them
were staying silent. She was essentially the voice for all women in 1963. This book was written
in a time where, as Friedan said, The suburban housewifeshe was the dream image of the
young American women and the envy, it was said, of women all over the world (paragraph 3).
However, she discovered that as she interviewed women, they were not happy. In fact, they all
felt empty. They felt as though they were able to do more than they were being allowed to do.
Friedan used the word empty a lot to describe the way women felt during these couple of
decades. At her college reunion, she interviewed many women that she attended college with. As
she quotes these other women, this feeling of emptiness was the common thread. Friedan was a
woman expressing how she felt, but she was also sharing the feelings of others as well. She was

quoting these other women, which makes the believability of the article high. The very similar
responses by the women shows that the majority of people felt the same way. This makes the
reader believe the article because the women all share the same feelings. Friedan was addressing
what she felt was a major problem in society in the 60s. She not only wrote about it to inform
the public, but also she made several attempts to increase womens rights in her lifetime.
Sometimes she was called a force for change in women's rights (biography.com).
Friedan wanted to not only inform the public of this rapidly growing problem, but also to
encourage women to take a stand for their rights. Friedan was a strong activist for women's
rights; for example, she cofounded the National Organization for Women and served as its first
president (biography.com). The document serves the sole purpose of informing and encouraging
women to stand up for what they deserve. Friedan knew that women had the abilities to be more
than a stay-at-home mom, she just wanted others to realize it to. She wanted the public to know
that women knew they deserved more. The problem that has no name only had no name
because the women couldn't connect with their feelings and speak up for themselves. Through
this book, Betty Friedan spoke up for the female race as a whole.