Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Feminine Mystique

I began to read "The Feminine Mystique" during my whole should-I-go-back-to-work crisis. It's the Betty Friedan 1963 book that caused a national sensation and arguably got the ball rolling on the women's movement. The book challenged the notion that women can/should only find fulfillment in their family role in the home. I haven't read enough of it yet, but I'm wondering if the book is headed in the direction to say that if a woman works, she can find the fulfillment and satisfaction that she was missing at home. I have no idea if this is what Fridan means to imply--that a woman can only find her identity through work. If so, boy did I have an awful identity immediately prior to children.

I understand that it's not fair to say that every woman is going to find her fulfillment in the home, but I'm just not so sure that it's fair to swing into the other direction and say that a woman will find this missing fulfillment through work, either, unless that work is humanitarian relief through the Red Cross or something similarly saintly. It made me think that there are two types of fulfillment.
1. A sense of accomplishment and pride
2. Satisfaction of some deeper meaning in one's life

Do you feel fulfillment in your life according to these two meanings? (Rhetorical question, answer not necessary :)

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