Symbol of the House
In Betty Friedan's account, the house acts as an important symbol. For women, the house essentially symbolizes a prison. Women's societal expectation is that they stay in the home and work on domestic chores, such as cooking, cleaning, and seeing that the house is ready for guests. It limits not only their abilities, but their drive to achieve something more in life and cast an identity for themselves. In this regard, the house acts as a prison.
Motif of Children
One recurring motif that can be found throughout the pages of The Feminine Mystique is the motif of children. In this literary piece, children serve two main roles or fulfill two main ideas. First and foremost, they represent the theme of repression that society has put on women. Raising and caring for children is an arduous and expensive task, and in our modern society it is considered the most difficult undertaking of an individual's life. However, this stress and burden was placed solely upon the shoulders of women, leaving them shackled and tired. The second idea this motif was used for was the concept that these children will become adults. Whatever forces and conditions act on them as children will lead to next generation of adults in society. Betty Friedan uses this part of the motif in her argument that mothers should be allowed to pursue their own desires, stimulating a similar sense of drive in their children, rather than apathy.
Symbol of A. C. Kinsey
Although A. C. Kinsey was a prominent sex researcher and a character in his own right, his role was that as a symbol. He represented the misinterpretation of the mass media and public. His early work in an unfinished study demonstrated that educated women had a far lower chance of enjoying their sex lives, and the media and public immediately grabbed onto the information and hung onto it in order to prove that women should remain subservient in the home. However, when he actually completed the study, his final results disproved his earlier workings, yet n one paid attention to this enormous detail.
Symbol of Maslow's Hierarchy
Maslow's hierarchy was a way for individuals to measure how much they had fulfilled of their internal and necessary human needs, and whether they were still searching at the bottom, or had reached the top of "self-actualization." Although it is based upon psychology and not class structure, it symbolizes what happens in society. Women are at the bottom of the hierarchy because they are only allowed the fill the most basic needs, all of which are placed at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy. Men, on the other hand, are at the top of the hierarchy because they have the ability to fulfill the highest need of self-actualization. It symbolizes how the more humans fulfill of themselves, the higher a role they take in society.
Symbol of Spheres
During any discussion of feminism and equality between the genders, including the discussion that takes place in this novel, the symbol of spheres often pops up. The different roles that different sexes play have been defined as their separate spheres, with women working in the domestic sphere and men working in the business sphere or dealing with the political sphere. As a result, the sphere has become a symbol for distinction and separation, especially between man and woman.
