The Feminine Mystique | 
 enlarge | Author: Betty Friedan
Creator: Anna Quindlen
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 4520
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0393322572
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.420973
EAN: 9780393322576
ASIN: 0393322572
Publication Date: September 2001
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Book Description
The book that changed the consciousness of a country—and the world. Landmark, groundbreaking, classic—these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This is the book that defined "the problem that has no name," that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since. A national bestseller, with over 1 million copies sold.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 Groundbreaking and inspiring August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am a 23 yr. old woman reading a book that was written in 1963 for and about women. I thought this book would help me learn more about women's history, but it was a huge eye-opener and a complete inspiration. The chapters in this book still describe me as a young American woman almost 40 yrs. later. Every woman and man should read this book. It has completely opened my eyes.
 "The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying millions of American women alive." July 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Betty Friedan's 1962 classic on feminism, based on her own interviews as well as research by others, like: Sigmund Freud (who she generally disagrees with), Margaret Mead, Dr. Alfred Kinsey, and Henry Maslow, provides insight into the status of American women of that era. Those who chose housewifery over higher education are especially maligned, less so are those who became educated and then obtained an MRS. According to Friedan, most women of that time felt unfulfilled living the life of a hausfrau. Each chapter covers a different aspect of the "feminine mystique" aka "mystique," phrases used interchangeably and occurring about 200 times in the book. "The problem that has no name" seems to be that American women were kept from growing to their full capacities due to the expectations of others. The author provides alternately what seems like reasonable, reliable information on women, for example, the attitude of many men (and probably some women) that they needn't bother becoming educated because they will become wives and mothers anyway, as well as contentions and conclusions (sometimes based on others' research) that are excessively inflammatory or just plain wrong. Among them, the comparison of housewife wannabes with concentration camp victims, (p 423) `...the women...who grow up wanting to be "just a housewife," are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps...' and that mothers are at least partially to blame for schizophrenia, (p 414) `As for the causes, the authorities felt that they "must examine the personality of the mother, who is the medium through which the primitive infant transforms himself into a socialized human being."' This sort of heavy-handedness is a major turnoff of the book. Ms. Friedan, founder of the National Organization for Women, fit the role of educated unsatisfied housewife that she wrote of so extensively (and had some pretty unconventional political views). In the epilogue she tells about her divorce (in 1969) after which she felt "less lonely than any time in her life."
As a college-educated mom, I too cringe every time I write "housewife" on the line marked "Occupation," but thankfully, gone are the days when women chose not to bother with college because being a wife and mother was so important. Hopefully, women who choose to have children and can afford to do so will make the choice that is best for their children (tougher than any paying job I've ever had). The Feminine Mystique was a landmark book in the 1960s, and contains information that is both timeless and timely, spot on and off the mark. I found some of the historical information and research particularly interesting, but her personal interviews with women generally awful. Those who loved this book will likely also enjoy: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett, and Runaway by Alice Munro.
Housewife phobia June 13, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have long avoided reading this book, since I knew that Ms Friedan had a low opinion of housewives, and being one myself, I didn't think reading this book would do me any good. However, I finally took the plunge, and found it even worse than I had imagined.
Ms Friedan's loathing for the housewife is so venemous that it took me quite aback. Housewives, she reckoned, are mentally arrested, infantile women, afraid to engage in the 'real world' of work (it goes without saying that the workplace is more 'real' than the home, at any rate in Ms Friedan's estimation).
Her theory was that any woman who spent her life as a housewife was wasting her time, only in paid work could a woman really find fulfillment. And not just any paid work either. She doesn't have a kind word to say for the men who work at jobs which are not exciting, fulfilling, and challenging either. The housewife is no more making a significant contribution to society, she tells us, than is the man imagines he has built a car because he tightens the bolts on the assembly line. It doesn't seem to occur to Ms Friedan that we can't all be brain surgeons, college professors, and high court judges. Someone's got to tighten the bolts.
Ms Friedan believed that the rash of divorces in America at the time she was writing the book (early 60s) were caused by men being sick of supporting their useless wives. However, since nowadays most wives work, and since the rate of divorce has not noticeably decreased, I can't help feeling that perhaps the zombie-like housewife is not ENTIRELY to blame for this situation. She thought housewives were to blame for child-battering and homosexuality as well. Neither of those things have noticeably decreased since women gave up being housewives.
Even women who are not housewives are not necessarily safe from Ms Friedan's icy disapproval. She launches an attack on Shirley Jackson and Jean Kerr, both of whom wrote sublimely funny books about raising their children. Ms Friedan seems to be annoyed that even a career woman might think that her children are worth writing about.
But then I'm only a dumb housewife, what would I know?
 The Feminine Mystique April 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Betty Friedan is known for her work in feminism, this book is well written. All modern women should read this book for a point of reference. Good read, a good reference book to own.
 I'm glad that I can't relate to this book July 17, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Let me start off by saying that this book got an additional star from me because I completely agree with the point of this book: That if woman doesn't stand up and provide themselves with an identity and use themselves to their whole potential, they will become incomplete and nothing. This is mainly summed up in the chapter: A New Life Plan for Women. I recommend this book simply on this chapter. It is inspiring, positive, and relevant for women to read, even to this day. However, the rest of this book was hard for me to get through. In reference to the title of my review, I am young and perhaps I can't relate to some of the issues Ms. Friedan has brought up because of the women's movement of the '60's and '70's which has provided me with more opportunity, as a woman, to make life and career choices for myself without pressure or guilt. I am glad that I don't have the restrictions that women had back then and I am so grateful that there were women out there that knew our potential and were not willing to compromise it. But asides from possibly not liking the material because I found it hard to relate to, I did find that Ms.Friedan used alot of subject matter that is at best, subjective (for instance, the chapter Mistaken Choice was absurdly biased-- she makes references that the men in the military that were rejected for service due to mental issues usually came from homes that had doting overly loving mothers, that juvenile deliquency was non-existent in the homes of mothers who worked, that Russian children were more stable and adjusted than American children because their mothers worked or had interests outside the home etc, and that she even goes to imply that over loving a child is more traumatic for the child than raising them in a household where whippings and beatings are frequent possibilties.) There are other scattered observations that she made that I found hard to swallow as well, such as part of the chapter The Sexual Sell which implies that business caters to the homemakers because they do all the buying, and that mothers with careers or serious interests outside the home do not have the time to take to buy from business. I find it hard to believe that big business couldn't capitalize on the working mom. I can't believe that a working mom wouldn't be interested in an appliance that could cut her time to get chores done back then as well as today. That part of the chapter made no sense to me. Basically, I felt that Ms. Friedan used a lot of subjective facts, scare tactics (mother and housewife bashing), and propaganda that was unnecessary, at best, to get to her more inspiring point. I felt that all that "material" detracted from the point of the book, but I am glad I made it all the way through to get to the "New Plan." That's where the "heart of the artichoke" lies. But to those of you who feel that the point of the book is, "women who are unhappy with their lives are this way because they don't have a job" are missing the point. While although it is evident that she found her calling through her career and those around her (upper middle class women with privilege) did the same, her point is for women to challenge themselves and demand more than what is offered. Don't settle for less.
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