Based on the image, one would believe that housework is nothing but a minor obligation that hardly even interferes with paying attention to children and pets. As Friedan argues, that entire image was a false one that was designed to convince women that they could easily enjoy all of the new social and political freedoms of the modern age while simultaneously fulfilling their traditional homemaking responsibilities harmoniously and without any difficulty. The reality was very different, and as Friedan points out, that discrepancy was also the source of much anxiety, self-doubt, and even clinical depression in women. In reality, housework is hardly a minor chore; it requires considerable effort and it is time consuming and often dirty.

Unfortunately,...

They were faced with the so-called "traditional" wifely obligation to fulfill their homemaking duties while at the same time being told constantly that those chores should not interfere at all with their ability to maintain their attractiveness and femininity. Women faced with the reality of having no time for luxuries like going get their hair done because they were busy mopping floors and changing diapers turned on the television and opened magazines to images depicting all those chores being accomplished somehow by women in very similar circumstances who looked ready for a social affair as soon as they just untied their dainty white housework…