The Criticisms of The Friedan Mystique Article Essay

The Criticisms of The Friedan Mystique Article - Essay Example The difficulties that Betty Friedan saw women facing were most likely enough to let her realize that any revolution that would take place in women’s favor would do so at a slow and painstaking pace. Therefore, Friedan might have predicted that at some point during the change, women’s advances would not be commonplace. It might very well have been known to her that during the revolution, women’s wages as compared to men’s would rise to equality—not overnight, but gradually. Friedan’s idea was to grant women the wide variety of choices that men had. It was not to be conceived that women should abandon child-bearing and rear altogether and launch out into the business world without concern for family and the perpetuation (or at least prolongation) of the human race. Her goal was to grant women the choice and opportunity to pursue business should they have that desire. In light of this, it would seem that Betty Friedan would have known that some women might consciously choose to remain in the homes, bear and rear children, and take care of their husbands. Certainly, at the time that she lived and wrote, while some women seemed eager and were clamoring for equality, others seemed quite satisfied with their domestic lot. Some were even critical of the women who wanted the choice to become educated and actually use that education in the corporate and professional world. The existence of these phenomena would have made it possible for Friedan to predict the criticisms of feminism made in â€Å"The Friedan Mystique.†