Inspired by French feminist, Simone de Beauvoir and her book The Second Sex (1949), Betty Friedan released her own critique on the condition of American society with The Feminine Mystique (1963). Friedan comments on how white women had once been active participants in the workforce as independent women during the 1920s and 30s. That independence had shifted when they were forced into domestic / private spheres as housewives and mothers after WWII. Women were seen rather than heard - from societal opinions (like education, the marketplace or reconstruction of redemption based on Christianity) to female sexuality being primarily for consumption i.e., Playboy magazines. These are often preordained, patriarchal Victorian ideals of gender roles based on chastity and obedience easily associated with Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market.

Thus, The Feminine Mystique sparked conversations on women's rights, gender equality and female agency to challenge patriarchal orders. It also inspired the eventual legal victories in support of women and the creation of the National Organization of Women (NOW) in 1966, with current headquarters in Washington D.C. At the time of the sexual revolution between 1960s and 70s, this book plays a vital role in upturning the preconceptions of women being docile. While demanding sexual liberation, women also wanted to be respected / acknowledged as unrepressed, sexual beings - not for the pleasure of men, but for themselves.

Principle Source(s): Fallen or Forbidden: Rossetti’s Goblin Market |Betty Friedan Wikimedia image |Womenshistory.org | Sexual Revolution in the US during the 1960s