Chapter 2, The Happy Housewife Heroine Summary

The image created by magazines, television and advertising shapes women's lives. The image is of the happy housewife. Friedan gives examples from women's magazines in the 1960's, including a story in McCall's about a teenage girl who decides not to go to college and steals a man from a girl in college. Other material in the magazine includes patterns, weight loss articles and other fluff pieces. There is no mention of important world events such as Cuba, desegregation or scientific breakthroughs with telescopes in women's magazines. Friedan was told at a magazine conference that women are not interested in politics or anything other than home and family.

Friedan began reading women's magazines from the previous twenty years and found a change in the image of women in America. In magazines before World War II, magazines...