Observations And Philosophies. As much as Betty Friedan was an activist for equality of the sexes and intended her work to be a catalyst for that revolution, the poems in this collection are intended as a catalyst for freedom of thought and escape from conditioned paradigms of the human condition. Dare to think outside the box and there will be no box Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night - she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - "Is this all?" The Feminine Mystique (c) 1963 Betty Friedan