The Feminine Mystique Has Succeeded In Burying

Most Of The People In The Workforce Today Will Spend Some Years When They Also Have Children And Family Responsibilities.

The Problem Lay Buried, Unspoken For Many Years In The Minds Of American Women. It Was A Strange Stirring, A Sense Of Dissatisfaction, A Yearning That Women Suffered In The Middle Of The Twentieth Century In The United States. Each Suburban Housewife Struggled With It Alone. As She Made The Beds, Shopped For Groceries, Matched Slipcover Material, Ate Peanut Butter Sandwiches With Her Children, Chauffeured Cub Scouts And Brownies, Lay Beside Her Husband At Night, She Was Afraid To Ask Even Of Herself The Silent Question - "is This All?"

There Are Some Die-hard Male Chauvinist Pigs And There Are Some Neanderthal Women Who Are Threatened By Equality - But The Great Majority, Polls Say 65% To 75% Of Women Of America, Of All Ages, Absolutely Identify With The Complete Agenda Of The Women's Movement: Equal Opportunity For Jobs, Education, Professional Training, The Right To Control Your Own Body - Your Own Reproductive Process, Freedom Of Choice, Child Care-the Whole Agenda.

The Problem That Has No Name-which Is Simply The Fact That American Women Are Kept From Growing To Their Full Human Capacities-is Taking A Far Greater Toll On The Physical And Mental Health Of Our Country Than Any Known Disease.

We Broke Through The Feminine Mystique And Women Who Were Wives, Mothers And Housewives Began To Find Themselves As People. That Didn't Mean They Stopped, Or Had To Stop, Being Mothers, Wives Or Even Liking Their Homes.