The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

One of the hottest TV shows right now is Desperate Housewives, but about 42 years ago, Betty Friedan wrote a book about the faceless desperate housewives in America.
The book was an overnight sensation. It brought relief to many silent women who had for a long time sensed that there was something wrong with their lives.
Social activist Friedan, who studied psychology in university, realised that "the problem with no name" was eating away at the lives of American housewives.
More than four decades later, the book remains a talking point among women. From it, emerged the frustrations, hidden desires and secret wishes of all women in the Land of Stars and Stripes.
This book zeroes in quickly on the heart of the feminine mystique - the issue of women's identity crisis. The accepted practice that American women's life ambition was to be a housewife and a good mother to her children. It was only when Friedan - a pioneer feminist - asked them to, that some women found the courage to express their inner pain.
The Feminine Mystique is the fruit of a questionnaire Friedan conducted among 200 college mates at her 15th college reunion. The survey revealed what had been obvious to Friedan and many other women of her time. Most American housewives were desperately unhappy.
Magazines rejected Friedan's findings and she spent the next five years delving more deeply into the subject. The result - this treatise that shook a nation and sent ripples across the world.
This book shows that Friedan had done her homework and legwork and her findings more than proved her case.
Friedan echoes the sentiments of other eminent feminists like Germaine Greer and Gloria Steinem. The bottom line, as Friedan says, is that women have been trapped in societal roles created by community leaders - usually men - since time immemorial. After eons of conditioning and practice, even the smart ones yielded to this conformity without question.
In the closing chapters, Friedan admitted that there are no easy answers to the problem. The only advice she offers is: "First, she must unequivocally say 'no' to the housewife image.
"Second, women must recognise marriage for what it really is. To see it as the final fulfilment of their lives would be a disastrous perception."
Generations later, it is revealed that Betty Friedan's book has helped change the lives of American women forever.
Women heads of government (or State) like Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka), Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (Britain), Khaleda Zia (Bangladesh), Kim Campbell (Canada), Hanna Suchocka (Poland), Janet Jagan (Guyana), Helen Clark (New Zealand), Luisa Dias Diogo (Mozambique), Angela Merket (Germany) and others are testimony that women worldwide have made considerable progress since The Feminine Mystique first appeared.
On the negative side, the feminine mystique still exists in numerous forms - some subtle - in many countries. Depending on culture, tradition and the make-up of their society, many women's roles have remained the same for centuries.
Though Friedan was referring specifically to American women, it is undeniable that this is one of the most important books of its time for women all over the world. It holds an exalted position in the feminists' hall of fame.
This seminal work - which Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, described as "the book that pulled the trigger on history" - still has much relevance. It carries the strong message that all women must be allowed to realise and maximise their fullest potential at every level of society.