The Feminine Mystique  (English, Paperback, Friedan Betty)

The Feminine Mystique was a bestseller and was one of the basic catalysts for the Second Wave of the feminist movement.

Summary Of The Book

The Feminine Mystique was about the image transposed on the female psyche by the society. It sought to define a woman merely in terms of her biological functions, rather than settling her within the limited confines of her home and her family.

The feminist movement was initiated in the nineteenth century, and it resulted in many positive results for women in the early decades of the twentieth century, including earning for them the right to vote, which had hitherto been reserved only for men.

The two World Wars had an unexpected social side effect. It gradually broke the shackles on women as they moved in to fill the jobs vacated by men who were serving in the war. They proved themselves highly capable of fulfilling these roles, boosting their self-image.

When the men returned from the war though, the women were expected to quietly go back and shut themselves up within the confines of their homes. When women resisted, it sparked a reaction, and there was a concerted effort to convince women that their place was at home.
Betty Friedan, a freelance writer for women's magazines, conducted interviews with many women and found that they all felt that there was something missing in their life despite a happy family life. Friedan calls this 'the problem that has no name'. She decided to write a book based on her findings. The Feminine Mystique allowed her the freedom to detail her findings, to express her own feelings, and depicts her sense of anger and disappointment at a society that insisted on demeaning women and preventing them from exploring their own capabilities.

The Feminine Mystique might not appeal to the young women of the new century as it did to the women of the 1960s and 1970s, but it is part of their legacy. It was one of the reasons that women do enjoy much more freedom today than in the previous decades.
The book was first published in 1963, and sold over 3 million copies till the year 2000.

About The Authors

Betty Friedan was an American writer and a women's rights activist.

Other books by Friedan are It Changed My Life: Writings On The Women's Movement, The Second Stage and Beyond Gender.

Betty Friedan was born in 1921 in Illinois. She studied at the all-women Smith College, and graduated with the highest honors with a degree in psychology. She earned a fellowship to spend a year at the University of California at Berkeley. She established the National Organization for

Women in 1966 and became its first President.

Anna Quindlen is an American author and journalist.

Books by Quindlen are How Reading Changed My Life, Rise and Shine, Good Dog. Stay, One True Thing, and The Tree That Came To Stay.

Anna Quindlen was born in 1952 in Philadelphia. She graduated from Columbia University's Barnard College. She then began a career in journalism. In the mid-nineties, she quit her journalistic career to become a full-time author. She has written novels, books for children and works of non-fiction. Some of her novels have become bestsellers and some including One True Thing, have been adapted into movies.