The Identity Crisis in “The Importance Of Work” By Betty Friedan

Over the past few decades, a person’s identity for work is more than just biologically living; it is the freedom in which everyone is capable of creating their way of surviving through human evolution. In her piece, “The Importance of Work,” Betty Friedan discusses the identity crisis that men and women often have failed forming and achieving their own identity. Friedan mentions a German-born American psychologist, Erik Erikson, who invented the expression “identity crisis,” and gives an insight on how to dig deeper into its form of definition because she believes that men and women need work that pleases their creativity and helps their community.

Having a strong sense of identity requires a profound understanding of oneself. These include strengths and weaknesses, traits, and even thought patterns that are in Friedan’s work.

Although Friedan’s arguments are well thought out, and she engages substantially in presenting pathos throughout her whole piece, her arguments are missing some critical evidence that would make them more persuasive and compelling to the audience.

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The human mind can realize how important identity is and how it shapes the future of growing up. The human character is changing to become something more adequate than biological means. The value of “work, and the advance of knowledge, has lessened man’s dependence on his environment; his biology and the work he must do for biological survival are no longer sufficient to define his identity” (Friedan 790). This quote gets Friedan’s point across to show that it is more to that as the people who are trying to survive, are trying to choose the work that they do to make their lives easier on them with more freedom.

Work is also a sense of survival; identity is laid down by biology, meaning the work that a person is doing is for staying alive. Friedan says that individuals have “unprecedented freedom to choose the kind of work they will do; they also have an unprecedented amount of time apart from the hours and days that must actually be spent in making a living” (Friedan 790).

Friedan gives emotional appeal considering that men or women no longer have to spend most of their time out of their days to eat or survive. Although she shows strong grief towards men and women, she does not give full justification for how they have such an exceptional amount of time in making a living. Friedan does not provide full reasoning with statistical evidence nor does she explain how these people see the human importance of work to be more in evolution than biological means. Friedan gives a reason for why identity crisis is a problem that many individuals face during their development human in society, but he does not mention enough statistical evidence to persuade his argument to be effective. According to Friedan, she says, “identity crisis, which has been noted by Erik Erikson and others in recent years in the American man, seems to occur for lack of, and be cured by the finding, the work, or cause, or purpose that evokes his own creativity” (Friedan 791). She gives some ethical approach from Erikson in how identity crisis connects to creativity, but she fails to give clear evidence regarding the number of American men lacking the purpose of their creativity in contributing to the community.

Although identity crisis involves people not knowing what their role in life is and not knowing who they are, Friedan does not convince the reader why it is important to understand the phrase in the real world. She says that “they (psychiatrists) have long used “occupational therapy” with patients in mental hospitals; they have recently discovered that to be of real psychological value, it must be not just “therapy,” but real work, serving a purpose in the community” (Friedan 791). Friedan does not portray a specific reason on how “real work” serves a real purpose in the community. The lack of examples in her piece makes her arguments less effective and powerful. Friedan acclaims, “the identity of American women began a century ago, as more and more of the work that used their human abilities and through which they were able to find self-realization, was taken from them” (Friedan 791). She uses an active approach in arguing that women work just as hard as men; they use all their abilities to feel as reliable and competent as them to realize their full potential and Friedan is successful in discussing that while using pathos. Women have the same potential abilities as men because everyone all goes through specific struggles at some point.

According to Friedan, both women and men “can find their identity in work that uses their full capacities” (Friedan 792). A woman can find her own identity by herself and not the help of others. The feminists play an important role of fighting for and winning the rights to a new identity for women because they “saw clearly that education and the right to participate in the more advanced work of society were women's greatest needs” (Friedan 792). These feminists want to remind women that they are just as equal as men. Friedan uses good emotional appeal towards giving a reason for women to act in taking their lives seriously because they will damage their society. She points out that women today with “no goal, no purpose, no ambition patterning her days into the future, making her stretch and grow beyond that small score of years in which her body can fill its biological function, is committing a kind of suicide” (Friedan 792). This quote is a successful way of Friedan implying that if a woman does not have a purpose or goal in life, then she is wasting her time when she has so much potential in making an impact towards other people. The amount of pathos she provides in her argument is what gives it more reason in creating a powerful effect on women.

Identity is much more than looking in the mirror and noticing how someone’s appearance is. Friedan offered a numerous amount of details regarding the identity crisis that has been going on for decades. As identity progressed through the decades, it has become something so important to the human mind that makes people unique. The author gives no statistical evidence in supporting her arguments, and this weakens her point on men and women being equally the same and having an exceptional amount of time to make a living out of this world. Identity crisis is a conflict that many individuals often overlook. Friedan lays down critical points for people to realize their full potential in making a difference through their hard work and dedication, especially women because they work just as hard as men do. The author makes some good points about why men and women must find a goal or purpose in doing the work that they do, contribute to maintaining a peaceful community.

Friedan concludes that identity portrays an essential part in everyone’s life, especially women who are still trying to find a purpose in contributing to the community. Although she depicts a powerful appeal of pathos in her arguments, she still lacks critical evidence that would make her arguments more influential and justified to the reader.