feminine mystique
Idealized domestic womanhood
The feminine mystique is the idealized image of femininity that defines women primarily through domestic roles—wife, mother, homemaker—while discouraging ambitions outside the home.
The term comes from Betty Friedan's 1963 book of the same name, which argued this mystique left many educated American women unfulfilled: She rejected the feminine mystique and pursued a career in law.
- suffrage movementCampaign for voting rights
- gender rolesExpected behaviors by sex
- patriarchyMale-dominated social order
- domesticityLife centered around home
- depressionProlonged low state
identity crisis · guilt · empowerment · self-esteem · anxiety · liberation · emotional labor · sexism · Betty Friedan · suburban housewife · work-life balance · societal norms · motherhood · stay-at-home mom · perfectionism · self-sacrifice · beauty standards · glass ceiling
feminine mystiquewomen's liberation
Movement for female equality
feminism · female empowerment · gender equality · self-actualization · female autonomy
feminine mystiquesecond-wave feminism
1960s-80s equality movement
women's liberation movement · consciousness raising · sexual revolution
feminine, female, feminism, feminist, femininity, feminineness, effeminate, mystique, mystic