The feminine mystique revisited

Today, many social conservatives still blame Friedan and feminism for inducing women to abandon the home for the workplace, thus destabilizing families and placing their children at risk.

But feminism was always more of a response to women entering the labor force than its cause. In Western Europe and the United States, early capitalism drew huge numbers of young, single women into industries like textiles. Mill owners often built dormitories to house young female workers. Many of these workers became early supporters of both the anti-slavery and the women's rights movements, while middle-class women were energized by (and sometimes envious of) working women's vigorous participation in the public sphere.