Synopsis
Published in 1963, THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE is generally agreed to be the book that launched the women's liberation movement. In her groundbreaking study, Betty Friedan writes of her experiences as a wife and mother in the 1950s, and her growing sense of frustration with the idealized postwar concept of the perfect nuclear family--Dad in a business suit going off to engage the world, Mom in an apron keeping house, and 2.5 perfect children thriving on the situation. Friedan's nagging feeling that women felt a subversive, unspoken desire for something more fulfilling led her to do research into the lives of women across America, documenting their dissatisfactions with their roles and their desperate need to creep out from under the stereotypes that had defined femininity for generations in order to pursue their own goals. THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, which radically changed the lives of countless women, continues to be widely read as an iconic text in Women's Studies programs.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2001-09-01 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 410 pages | | Height: | 8.5 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 18.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
Released for the first time in paperback, this landmark social and political volume on feminism is credited with being responsible for raising awareness, liberating both sexes, and triggering major advances in the feminist movement. Reprint.
Industry Reviews
"Ms. Friedan may lack detachment, but this is live sociology and her rigour is contagious."
Times Literary Supplement (05/31/1963)
"I can't say...that she created the women's movement....But Betty Friedan sounded the kickoff signal in 1963, with THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, and she performed the writer's unique service by saying out loud what the rest of us had only nervously thought. Things have never been the same since."
Saturday Review (07/24/1976)
"What was unique about Friedan was that she alone attempted to provide a "scientific" rationale for breaking gender rules--a moral and intellectual framework that would make sense to your average liberal, educated American.But Friedan was astute enough to see the revolutionary potential of the new psychology when it was still young enough to have a sparkle of defiance in its eye.This was the resounding new idea that gave THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE its intellectual heft: If there is a misfit between individual human desires and the cultural status quo, it is the status quo that has to go. The implications of this radical new world-view, as opposed to the pop-Freudian conservatism that much of mainstream psychology still clings to today, were and remain staggering."
L.A. Weekly - Barbara Ehrenreich (08/28/1998)
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