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[Name]
[Professor]
[Subject]
[Date]
The term “the problem that has no name” was strategic to the whole line of thought of
Betty Friedan. By not putting a name to the issue, she seemingly stirred up more curiosity and
kept an open interpretation for people. I think this may be her way of not triggering the
conservatives. But the rhetoric cannot stir me away from the fact that this has, indeed, something
to do with feminism and women revolution. I would describe the problem which Friedan exposes
in two ways. To begin with, the problem centers around the theme of stereotyping and
mainstreaming for women across the country. There appears to be this given template for all
women at that time to conform with and follow religiously. This is evident as Friedan says “all
they had to do was devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing
children” (Friedan 15). Secondly, with all these stereotyping and pressure, it should be
anticipated that a certain resistance would arise. This happens because the women, which were
imposed with all the demands of contemporary society, tends to lose their sense of freedom.
Consequently, it is this lack of freedom which breeds the intense desire to be liberated.
For Betty Friedan, this “the problem that has no name” is very much alive and present
since she knew that a lot of her fellow in the same gender experiences the same. The mundane
thing that started off from a simple chat among mothers turned out to be a problem worthy of the
attention of the entire humanity. I believe the reason why so many women are suffering from it
is simple, and it is because they have a common denominator. For so long they [women] have
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lived a life dictated for them by the people around. They were made to believe that it is their only
vocation and they were obligated to take pride and find joy in it. But, as we all know, doing
something when you know you want something else can be emotionally draining. Ultimately,
those women are just suffering from a lack of personal life-project. This suffering is brought
about by the things I have mentioned in the former paragraph: stereotyping and lack of freedom.
With this, Friedan saw that what was happening is already too much. She knew she can no
longer ignore the voice within and one needed to start doing action (Friedan 18). You see, the
situation they were in is like a still water on a lake. It is smooth on the surface since no one dared
to even disturb it. But once someone throws a boulder in it, the whole surface creates waves
manifesting that things aren’t always as calm as they expect. This was the move made by
Friedan, she became courageous enough to throw the first boulder.
Moreover, on the other side of the story, I found out that not all women share the same
conviction as Friedan and her friends. There is one prominent opposer to liberal feminism, which
I assume is what Friedan wants to fight for, and her name was Phyllis Schlafly. Yes, she is a
woman and yes, she is also American. Phyllis Schlafly reasoned that the current societal state of
women is already enough and thus no need for a liberation. She believed that women, from the
beginning, were never inherently tied or restricted. Rather, it is the opposite- she sees the things
done by women as an edge to the opposite gender. She’s said that it is an advantage to have this
number one career and still pursue a second one worthy of their intellectual or cultural needs
(Schlafly 488). In short, she’s just basically saying that being a mother and a wife is a no-brainer
for all women. They simply just have to oblige and be wonderful with it. I’m not at all awed with
this idea. I believe Schlafly only said this because she is coming from a good place. She probably
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has not seen what the women in the lower class are experiencing. To me, her contentions are
merely products of an elitist mindset.
Works Cited:
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Msytique. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1963AD.
Schlafly, Phyllis. “‘What's Wrong With 'Equal Rights' For Women?".” The Phyllis Schlafly
Report, vol. 5, no. 7, Feb. 1972.
