Although usually seen as a violent work about turbulent marriages, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? it should be considered one of the first feminist texts. Bonnie Finkelstein writes that the 1962 play portrays and analyzes the harmful effects of traditional, stereotypical gender roles, particularly for women; the work serves to underline how unrealistic, useless and extraordinarily harmful they are ultimately. Finkelstein notes that the 1963 publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique unofficially began a reevaluation of gender roles in the United States (Finkelstein 55). Friedan explores the idea that women need more satisfaction in their lives than can be provided by the hard work of raising children and taking care of the home. The book also carefully lays out what society has established as the ideal gender role requirements for women: “They could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their femininity. The experts told them how to get a man and keep him, how to breastfeed babies and manage their toilet training... how to dress, look and act more feminine and make marriage more exciting... They learned that truly feminine women do not want a career, a career higher education, political rights…All they had to do was dedicate their lives from early childhood to finding a husband and having children.” (Friedan 15-16) And more precisely: The suburban housewife... was healthy, beautiful, educated, concerned only with her husband, her children, her home. She had found true female fulfillment. (Friedan 18) Albee echoes this, noting by contrast what ideal men and women should be in 1962. In other words, his characters have failed to respect gender roles and the play shows us how this pursuit has destroyed... the middle of the card... is imperfect, proving that these gender roles are impossible. emulate. As Finkelstein notes, all four characters are afraid of Virginia Wolf, because she is, in 1962, the only icon of female equality that society had. (Finkelstein 64)Works CitedAlbee, Edward. Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York: Atheneum House, 1962. Finkelstein, Bonnie Blumenthal. "Albee's Martha: Someone's Daughter, Someone's Wife, Nobody's Mother." American drama (5) n. 1, autumn 1995. page. 51-70. Friedan, Betty. The feminine mystique. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 1963.Julier, Laura. “Faces Toward the Dawn: Female Characters in Albee's Comedies.” Edward Albee: Planned Wilderness. Interviews, essays and bibliography. and. Patrizia De La Fuente. Edinburgh, Texas: Pan American University Printing House, 1980. Vogel, Paula. How I learned to drive. New York: Playwrights Play Service, 1998.