Summary Of The Sexual Solipsism Of Sigmund Freud - 984 Words

Chapter 4: Friedan discusses early American feminists and how they fought against the assumption that the proper role of a woman was to be solely a wife and mother. She notes that they secured important rights for women, including education, the right to pursue a career, and the right to vote.[11] Chapter 5: In this chapter, called The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud, Friedan, who had a degree in psychology, criticizes Sigmund Freud (whose ideas were very influential in America at the time of her books publication). She notes that Freud saw women as childlike and as destined to be housewives, once pointing out that Freud wrote, I believe that all reforming action in law and education would break down in front of the fact that, long†¦show more content†¦Friedan says that this change in education arrested girls in their emotional development at a young age, because they never had to face the painful identity crisis and subsequent maturation that comes from dealing with many adult challenges.[11] Chapter 8: Friedan notes that the uncertainties and fears during World War II and the Cold War made Americans long for the comfort of home, so they tried to create an idealized home life with the father as breadwinner and the mother as housewife.[13] Friedan notes that this was helped along by the fact that many of the women who worked during the war filling jobs previously filled by men faced dismissal, discrimination, or hostility when the men returned, and that educators blamed over-educated, career-focused mothers for the maladjustment of soldiers in World War II. Yet as Friedan shows, later studies found that overbearing mothers, not careerists, were the ones who raised maladjusted children.[11] Chapter 9: Friedan shows that advertisers tried to encourage housewives to think of themselves as professionals who needed many specialized products in order to do their jobs, while discouraging housewives from having actual careers, since that would mean they would