A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique & American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s

by Stephanie Coontz

In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. Hundreds of women wrote to her to say that the book had transformed, even saved, their lives. Nearly half a century later, many women still recall where they were when they first read it. In A Strange Stirring, historian Stephanie Coontz examines the dawn of the 1960s, when the sexual revolution had barely begun, newspapers advertised for "perky, attractive gal typists," but married women were told to stay home, and husbands controlled almost every aspect of family life. Based on exhaustive research and interviews, and challenging both conservative and liberal myths about Friedan, A Strange Stirring brilliantly illuminates how a generation of women came to realize that their dissatisfaction with domestic life didn't reflect their personal weakness but rather a social and political injustice.

Genres: History, Feminism, Nonfiction, Womens, Gender, Sociology, Womens Studies

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2008

About the author

Stephanie Coontz is director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, which she chaired from 2001 to 2004, and emeritus faculty of history and family studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She has written about gender, family, and history, and her writings have been translated into a dozen languages.

Reviews

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Stephanie Coontz's books, with their critical analysis of the way we think things were historically vs. factual evidence. This book overlapped a little with her book on marriage but focused on myths and facts surrounding The Feminine Mystique and its impact, both perceived and actual.

In her introduction, Coontz tells us that The Feminine Mystique "has been credited -- or blamed -- for destroying...the 1950s consensus that women's place was in the home." Passionate opinions abound about whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, including many from people who've never actually read the book. When Coontz finally read the book, she discovered that she found it "boring and dated...repetitive and overblown," as well as making oversimplified claims about feminism in the 1920s and antifeminist reactionary sentiments in the 1940s and 1950s. Friedan was also not exactly liberated by today's standards -- she opined against homosexuality, failed to acknowledge the experience of people of color, and was actually not as single-minded about women working outside the home as she is perceived to be.

Coontz begins by acknowledging that the early 1960s was in fact a time of much institutionalized sexism in America. She writes about Freudian psychiatrists promoting ideas that if a woman felt dissatisfied in her wife/mother role, there was clearly something wrong with her rather than with her situation. Coontz notes that Friedan did not actually challenge the notion that women should be wives and mothers. Rather, Friedan gave voice to the fact that many housewives, while striving mightily to convince themselves and others that they were content to revolve their lives around the routines of housework and childcare, felt a deep insecurity, self-doubt, and unhappiness that they could not articulate. This was a message which spoke to a large number of 1960s housewives.

According to Coontz, a prominent theme of The Feminine Mystique was that women, like men, want to feel that their lives have a greater meaning and purpose. Friedan argued that although a woman who could stay home and raise her children was arguably privileged, and may feel guilty for failing to appreciate her situation, she could still feel frustrated and stifled. This struck a chord with many women in this situation, who were struggling with depression and taking tranquilizers and blaming themselves for the dissatisfaction they felt. Interestingly, Coontz notes that "Nowhere does the book advocate that women pursue full-time careers or even suggest that women ask their husbands to help them with childcare and housework if they went to school or took a job." In fact, many later feminists felt that The Feminine Mystique failed to confront male privilege in the home. Friedan simply advocated for women to "pursue and education and develop a life plan that would give meaning to the years after her children left home." This agenda was hardly a militant one.

According to Coontz, Friedan argued that following women's suffrage and the first wave of feminism in the 1920s, the Great Depression and World War II resulted in a backlash that drove women back into the home out of a need for family stability in trying times. Friedan added that manufacturers saw the population of homemakers as ideal consumers, and promoted household goods as a source of self-actualization for women in these roles. She named other sources as well as promoting the idea that women should feel entirely fulfilled in homemaking roles and have no need for any other outlets. However, Coontz adds, Friedan's account does not exactly jive with actual history.

Although successful activism by women for the sake of women's suffrage resulted in progress, feminism in the 1920s was not a monolithic movement and many expressed discomfort with the changes on this front. More women began working at this point, but it was a time of glaring double standards and inequalities. Further, having gained the vote, feminism lost a unifying cause and the threat of fascism in the 1930s became more of a concern than women's rights. Additionally, a review of popular articles published in the late 1940s and 1950s suggests that Friedan's ideas were not as novel as people believe; in fact, feminist ideas were being voiced and the ideal of a woman staying home was being challenged in a variety of quarters. In other words, although there was some truth to Friedan's views of feminist history from the 1920s until the 1960s, the picture was more complex than she acknowledges.

That being said, Coontz acknowledges that reading The Feminine Mystique was transformative for many women. Many women describe The Feminine Mystique as liberating them from the self-blame they experienced as they struggled with anxiety and depression in their roles as homemakers, sometimes with difficult marriages. Although Friedan's claims had been anticipated by some earlier scholars, Friedan's book reached a wider audience and was therefore perceived as original. Some women credit Friedan with giving them the courage to leave their unhappy marriages; however, Friedan was actually not anti-marriage. Friedan's argument was that marriages would be happier when women no longer tried to meet all of their needs through their assigned roles as wives and mothers, not that women should leave their marriages. In fact, Coontz encountered women (and men!) who reported that reading The Feminine Mystique actually helped their marriages.

According to Coontz, many critics dismiss The Feminine Mystique "as written by a middle-class housewife who did not understand the needs of working women or minorities and who addressed problems unique to elite, educated readers." Coontz notes that the book was clearly biased in favor of women from middle-class backgrounds, and had its biggest impact on women who were college-educated but could not see how to integrate their education with their adult life as wives and mothers. This was certainly a different problem from women who were working out of necessity, although some working-class women embraced The Feminine Mystique as well. Coontz is sympathetic, noting that although the pain of women struggling with hardship and deprivation should clearly not be overlooked, the internal struggles of middle class women experiencing role conflict are worth examining as well.

In her final chapters, Coontz notes that Friedan exaggerates the originality of her ideas and fails to acknowledge some of her source material. The Feminine Mystique was not actually ahead of its time, according to Coontz, who states that books "don't become bestsellers because they are ahead of their time. They become bestsellers when they tap into concerns that people are already mulling over, pull together ideas and data that have not yet spread beyond specialists and experts, and bring these all together in a way that is easy to understand and explain to others." Rather than innovating, The Feminine Mystique "synthesized a wide range of scholarly research and contemporary social criticism."

Coontz also notes that Friedan exaggerated the "hostile reception" her book received; in fact, she had a large number of supporters. According to Coontz, "The women's movement certainly would have taken off without Friedan's book." What Friedan did accomplish, though, was "lifting so many women out of such deep self-doubt and despair." Coontz describes The Feminine Mystique as a "journalistic tour de force, combining scholarship, investigative reporting, and a compelling personal voice." According to Coontz, Friedan's "insistence on the need to break down prevailing assumptions about women, work, and family and to look for the societal origins of dilemmas that are often experienced as purely personal remains extremely relevant."

Coontz describes Friedan as far from a "'man hater.'" Rather, she was "consistently, almost romantically, optimistic about heterosexual love and marriage in a world where women were men's equals." According to Coontz, although sociologists and economists correctly predicted that women with more resources would be more likely to walk away from an unsatisfying marriage, after an initial increase the divorce rate actually began to decline after the 1980s. More women are happily integrating careers and motherhood, and more men are helping with housework, even if their wives stay home. The lowest level of life satisfaction is not reported by stay-at-home mothers or by working mothers -- rather, it's reported by those who have had one of these paths forced on them when their preference is the other path.

Coontz argues that we have come a long way since The Feminine Mystique; however, we have some new problems. According to Coontz, in out time of increasingly liberal dress norms, young girls are increasingly preoccupied with looking "hot" without looking "slutty," and this early emphasis can lead to girls becoming sexually active before they are emotionally ready. Coontz adds that as a society, we continue to give conflicting messages about motherhood and work as well as promoting the myth that stay-at-home mothers and working mothers are divided into two hostile camps and sides must be taken about who is "right." According to Coontz, while most women desire some combination of professional development and hands-on motherhood, rigid work policies create a reality where one of these goals must take a backseat, even if it is no longer sacrificed entirely. Today, "...few workers have the luxury of a full-time caregiver at home, even though obligations to children last longer than in the past..." and "...employees who do earn enough to support a family...are often forced to work more hours than they really need or want." Coontz notes that other countries set limits on the maximum length of the workweek and are more generous with subsidized parenting leaves.

I remember learning in high school that The Feminine Mystique rocked American society, and in my religious circles, feminism is often blamed for the breakdown of families and all sorts of societal ills. It was fascinating to examine this rhetoric through the lens of a historical look at the book that supposedly -- though not actually -- launched the movement.

[Susan Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Strange Stirring is an excellent "biography of a book" that sets The Feminine Mystique in its historical context. I grew up in the 1950s, read Friedan's book in 1964, and was strongly influenced by it. In its time, for Friedan's intended audience, it was a powerful book. It has come under fire in recent decades by people who weren't there when it came out and don't understand how it felt to be a fifties woman. A Strange Stirring sets the record straight. Kudos to author Stephanie Coontz for a well-documented, beautifully written study of an important book, an important decade.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've described A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique & American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s by Stephanie Coontz to others as a historical look at the women who read The Feminine Mystique, the impact of the book on their lives and a look at the myth of Betty Friedan. For a women's history nerd like me, this book was awesome. Admittedly, the semester took it's toll on how quickly, or rather how slowly, I read this book as this review was supposed to be included in Girl w/Pen's salon back in February.

I also have to admit that I've never read The Feminine Mystique. I know, I know...but Coontz also talked to women who didn't read the book either! The mythology surrounding TFM is so strong that it has touched most of our lives whether we have read it or not. I believe the mythology of TFM is simply put that Betty Friedan, a 1950s housewife, wrote a book about how she discovered that her boredom of caring for the kids and cleaning the house lead her to single-handedly revive the feminist movement in the USA. This includes founding the National Organization for Women. The critiques focus on how the book and the mainstream feminist movement (NOW) were too focused on middle-class white women. Coontz painstakingly proves and disproves these myths.

She also puts all the realities into historical perspective. Coontz is a historian and while some may think she is making excuses for how Friedan frames the issues in the book as well as tweaks Friedan made to her own backstory. Coontz outlines the often ignored/hidden feminist movement of the post-WW II era before the second wave officially begins with facts such as:

...by 1955, a higher percentage of women worked for ages than ever had during the war. In fact, women's employment rate grew four times faster than men's during the 1950s.The employment of wives tripled and the employment of mothers increased fourfold. (page 59)

The emotion that Friedan tapped into with TFM, according to Coontz, wasn't that being married and a mom was a terrible thing, but that by having marriage & motherhood as THE goal in life, for most women in the 1950s, their life goals were achieved by 25. "..a few years after having children [they] found that they had no compelling goal left to pursue. As Cam Stivers said, it felt as if her life was already over (page 86)."

The myth that Friedan was anti-marriage was explored and Coontz finds evidence that yes, some of the women who read TFM eventually divorced. But she also found that many of those women remarried and loved their second marriages. Coontz also talked with men who had read the book. Those men recounted how it helped them reframe how they saw marriage as more of a partnership.

As for the whiteness of TFM, Coontz acknowledges this fact. She spends one chapter to answer this critique directly while educating readers on the often unacknowledged history of African-American women in the civil rights movement as well as their leadership in "balancing" work and family. Coontz interviewed African-American women who wrote to Friedan who were upset that Friedan thought working would solve housewives problems as well as those who said it steeled them against the "prejudices in graduate school or medical school (126)."

I loved the chapter where Coontz lets Ruth Rosen's working class critique take center stage. So many white working class women wrote to Friedan with essentially a "wah..wah..wah..." message. Women who were working their butts off at the office and at home and did not feel liberated. And the even-handedness of Coontz also shows us working-class women who used TFM as their only ally in their quest to attend college and postpone the marriage & baby carriage.

Coontz ends the book with a look at how women are faring today. Did feminism kill marriage? Nope. The more education a woman gets, the more likely they are to marry. Did feminism kill sexiness? Nope. The more men contribute to housework, the happier they are in the bedroom! It's not all fun and roses, but it's not the gloom and doom that anti-feminists want us to believe.

And lastly, does feminism hate mothers? Hell no! Coontz wrote an excellent op-ed in the NYTimes for Mother's Day outlining how feminism has helped mothers by pushing for women to make their own choice about staying home with the kids, working outside the home or both depending on the family's need. Most pressure on women to be a certain kind of mother usually comes from non-feminist talking heads.

I really hope that everyone who has any opinion of what TFM did to our culture will read this book. It won't convert those who fiercely opposes feminism, but those who hold moderate views or hesitate to call themselves feminists based on any of the myths this books debunks, will be moved to reexamine those beliefs. It will also allow for a re-examination of Friedan herself. For those of us who are fiercely feminist, this is a must read book. One who doesn't know her history is bound to repeat it. And we all know how that turns out in the feminist movement. *wink*

Disclaimers: I requested a copy from the author and am a big fan of her previous work.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4/5 stars

Wow, I have so many thoughts about this book.

First, I want to say I am blown away by the research required for Coontz to write what amounts in many ways to an anecdotal account of the impact of The Feminine Mystique on multiple generations of women. Coontz presents a detailed history with an impressive bibliography of the sources she used in this text. While a short book, I had to take extended breaks from this book because of how fact-heavy it was. Each relatively short paragraph was full of personal accounts or well-researched data that I needed to give my mind space to breathe.

I have yet to read The Feminine Mystique, but I was still able to appreciate and understand this book. Coontz, as I believe she confesses at the beginning of the book, was unsure whether to attempt a biography of a book, Betty Friedan, or the beginnings of second-wave feminism. Here, I believe in various places and in different ways, she accomplishes all three. I was also impressed at Coontz's attempt to be fair to Friedan's opponents and her own. There were a few times Coontz's personal biases popped off the page, but they were rare.

In the stories of these women, I saw the stories of my grandmothers, the opportunities denied them because of their gender or because they had to care for their families. In the accounts of well-educated women who felt their brains turning to mush because society told them to turn off their brains to be good mothers, I was reminded of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own--of Judith, Shakespeare's equally talented sister who could never be what her brother was allowed to become. This book helped me understand and see a lot of the propaganda present on social media today aimed at young women, propaganda that says being a mother is the most important but also the least important thing you as a woman can be. So much of this is a ghost of the feminine mystique or what Coontz at the end of her book calls "the supermom mystique." I think this is a worth-while read for all of us as we navigate these issues and questions today.

There were some things I didn't love about this book. The ending, while interesting and needed, fell a little flat. I would have found it interesting to hear from more modern women about how Friedan's work has impacted them, if at all. While I appreciate Coontz's endeavor to discuss how the book impacted African American women and working class women, I felt that chapter could have focused more on African American women's interactions with the text or the texts that stood in place of Friedan's in the African American women's movement. Overall, interesting and solidly researched work that serves as an insightful introduction to Friedan's most influential piece of writing.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's quite common in literary criticism to find a book that's about another book: you know, analyses of Pride and Prejudice or War and Peace. Don't know that I've ever before come across a work of informational nonfiction about another work of informational nonfiction. It made for a weird read.... Still, I would recommend the first eight chapters for anyone who read and found interesting The Feminine Mystique. I would recommend the ninth and final chapter for ANYONE: it's terrific, a really concise summary on the state of heterosexual marriage, gender equality and human happiness in the US in the 21st century. I would recommend Coontz's "lengthy bibliographic essay," which is how refers in her author's note to the travesty she substitutes for citations and a works cited list, for absolutely no one--it's a useless piece of crap. It ensures that no one can easily check her scholarship, which raises suspicions, since she points out that Friedan didn't like it when people checked hers. Stephanie: what's up with that useless thing? What on earth were you thinking?

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it was because I teach Friedan's _The Feminine Mystique_, but I felt like this book covered a lot of old territory. When it did add new material, however, it was really exciting. Also, don't love the "foregoing endnotes and using a bibliographic essay" thing. I'd rather know where each piece of evidence is coming from. But, for those less familiar with the cultural history of this text, it would be a great read.

[Genevieve Brassard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and useful companion to Friedan’s book, as both a corrective to her blind spots and deliberate omissions, and as a reminder of the book’s real impact on actual women’s lives and some of its still resonant ideas.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

we read this one in my feminist book club, & i think it probably earned two & a half stars from me. when will goodreads get with the program & start offering half-stars?

i really wanted to like this book! i was even prepared to shell out & pay full-price for it new, but the independent bookstore in my town didn't have any copies & couldn't get a copy to me before my book club meeting. a word to the wise for those of you who live in towns with well-stocked independent bookstores: never take that for granted. although i routinely sang the praises of the harvard bookstore when i lived in boston & spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars there over the course of eight years, i am now feeling like i didn't cherish it enough.

because i couldn't get a hard copy in time for my meeting & the public library copy (copies?) was (were?) checked out, i had to settle for an ebook. this may have influenced my perspective on the book. i have even gone so far as to read e-versions of books i've already read as actual books, & i did not like them as much in the e-version. i don't have an ereader, so i have to read ebooks on my computer. even with the screen light turned down, it makes my eyes tired, the interface is clunky, & i find myself racing to finish the book just so i can end the torture of reading on an electronic device.

the actual text of this book is skimpy--only about 180 pages. it's not a biography of friedan, who wrote the feminine mystique so much as it is a mash-up of a social history examining the influence of the feminine mystique & a sociological overview of women's rights fifty years later. if you have ever read any inter-disciplinary-ish sociological non-fiction, especially that published by an academic press, you will be familiar with the way that these books always start with a really detailed introduction that functions as a kind of annotated table of contents. pretty much all the talking points the book is going to focus on are summarized briefly in the intro. well, a strange stirring basically read as a 180-page introduction. i kept waiting to get to the meat & potatoes part of the book, the part that would can it with the endless statistics & survey results for two seconds & really get into some nitty gritty stories about how the feminine mystique influenced its readers, or how it was marketed, or how it shaped a second wave feminist legacy that is relevant to women today. but it was just a ceaseless parade of facts, figures, percentages, survey results, & rehashing of other scholars' research. the whole thing felt a little bit sloppy & lot derivative. about halfway through the book, i found myself thinking, "this is a book about a book, & the author has failed to make any compelling argument about why in the fuck i should care about the feminine mystique." i mean, that is kind of an oversight.

even though the other women in my book club had been excited to read this book, we kept it on our agenda for three weeks & never managed to talk about it even once. all three of our meetings were just gossip sessions. which says a lot more about the book than us. it just didn't compel us or inspire us at all. even our few attempts to relate our gossip topics to something in the book were belabored & shallow.

& today, i read an article in the "new york times" written by stephanie coontz, about educated women & marriage. her argument was basically that women are now earning more than half of all advanced degrees in the united states, & by the time an educated women is 35-40, she is just as likely to have been married than her less educated counterparts. um...fascinating? there were lots tawdry details about how men that are less educated than their wives experience more erectile dysfunction, which coontz suggests is a function of a man feeling inferior to his wife. it was like the feminist version of yellow journalism. i don't know. it just felt like a throwback to 1992 or something, like the next article was going to be about gennifer flowers. i guess that if you are really pining for feminist scholarship that has not progressed beyond the clinton administration, this might be just the book you are looking for, but the rest of us are a little disappointed.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book about The Feminine Mystique (the book), the controversies that surrounded it, the impact that it had, and the material it drew from, often without attribution. Incomprehensible to anyone who has not read The Feminine Mystique.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looks at the phenomenon that was The Feminine Mystique when Betty Friedan wrote it in the 1960s. I found its analysis of The FM interesting, since I'd never read the book but knew some of its history. Basically, what it comes down to is that Friedan wrote that the culture of the day idolized and elevated the work of a homemaker, creating the "feminine mystique", while many housewives (particularly educated ones) found it boring at times. The solution, according to Friedan, is for a woman to get involved in creative (i.e. paid) work.

I found it ironic, however, that Coontz is critical of how Friedan didn't go far enough in facing down the stereotypes of her age (because *gasp* Friedan didn't support lesbians!) but at the same time, Coontz takes our current stereotypes and cultural mores for granted and doesn't examine them. That was the biggest disappointment to me -- that Coontz starts from the clear bias that virtually everything that came from the feminist movement is wonderful, that the reason the book was so successful is that it resonated with those poor depressed housewives, and that women belong in the workforce (virtually no mention is made of how this helps children, however, which to me is the biggest problem with the feminist movement -- it's all about individual fulfillment at the expense of children).

For example, Coontz analyzes the letters written to the editors of the magazines that published excerpts of Friedan's book, noting that 80% of them were negative. She quotes the positive ones in detail, showing how these women resonated with what Friedan was saying, then says dismissively that those who were negative towards Friedan just showed how steeped they were in the feminist mystique themselves -- because of course if a woman writes in to say it's a wonderful gift to be able to create a beautiful home and a loving environment for her husband and children, she must be brainwashed by the cultural expectations. Never mind that according to Coontz herself, that means that 80% of the letters were apparently written by brainwashed, oppressed housewives.

From my perspective, as an educated mother who has chosen to stay home with my children, I can see why and how Betty's book resonated with those who felt discouraged or frustrated with the work of motherhood. Motherhood is hard work and much of it is invisible (except when it's not done!). It's also a long-term investment. Much of it doesn't grant immediate benefits, like a paycheck, status, or recognition. If you focus on the day to day, short-term feelings, it's easy to feel like nothing important is happening and to find yourself buying into Friedan's arguments that it would be better to enter the workforce and enjoy more creativity and fulfillment. But the creative work offered in the workforce is nothing compared to the real pay-off that comes from really giving your heart and soul to the people you love. Relationships take time, energy, and effort, some of it mundane and boring, but in the grand scheme of things, that's what matters most.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two or three chapters were slow-going for me, but then the book picked up momentum. It is fascinating to read reactions to The Feminine Mystique from a wide spectrum of people and from different generations and time periods. There weren't quite as many testimonials as I had anticipated, but in the end, those the author chose to use were highly resonant. I think much of the truth (both positive and negative) of the book was captured in this unexpected reaction "from a prominent gay historian."

"In the 1990s he had a stay-at-home boyfriend 'who suffered from the same anxieties as the housewives Friedan profiled.' At his advice, his partner read the book taking comfort from the idea that the depression he had at first experienced as a personal inadequacy was an understandable reaction to the lack of independent meaning in his life.

"A few years later, the historian picked up Friedan's book himself and was 'astounded' by its power. 'Her diatribes against homosexuals were repellent. I was shocked to see that she reflected uncritically the biases of the 1950s...But the book still spoke to me, a gay man of the twenty first century."

I found the last two chapters especially good, including Coontz's discussion of the "career mystique."

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best parts of this book are the sections in which Coontz focuses on the reactions of women to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. Many of them (mostly white, middle-class, college-educated) credit the book with opening their eyes to the unarticulated realities of gender in the world of the late 50s and early 60s. Writing response-based scholarship is tricky since there's an inherit "sample bias" built in. For the most part, Coontz handles the problem well. The stories she passes on underscore the seriousness of Friedan's "problem with no name"--the ennui that overtook women who, in theory, had something resembling "it all." She also does a good job deflating the myth that The Feminine Mystique created the feminist movement of the late 60s and early 70s out of whole cloth.

Beyond that, there's a lot of material about gender and women's history that basically summarizes very well known (to those who read in the field) information. Nothing wrong with that, but it meant that for me, the book could have been about half its length (and it's not long) without losing anything crucial.

For general readers, start with Coontz's The Way We Never Were, a terrific deflating of the nostalgia surrounding images of gender and the family from the post-World War II era.

[Tobi · Rating 4 out of 5]

i got a review copy of this in the mail this week and have been reading it today...it's excellent....read johanna fateman's review here http://www.bookforum.com/review/6950...I am forcing myself to put it down until next month...if anyone would like to read this book and meet up to discuss it I would be totally into that, so let me know! it's a nuanced, social history of betty friedan's the feminine mystique, but it doesn't seem to be just for theory-nerds or womens studies majors; this book is for anyone interested in having a clear understanding of post-war 20th century American history.
coontz has a race and class analysis of the feminine mystique , but persuasively argues that it is worth a deeper look, not a quick dismissal. I read the feminine mystique when I was 18. I wasn't a 50's housewife or mom, I was a teenage girl in a band in a male-dominated punk scene struggling not to be defined as "someone's girlfriend", and it resonated with me at the time. I look forward to reconsidering it in its social context.

[Aimee Powelka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read for people like me who had heard of The Feminine Mystique but never really knew what it was (another way to say sexism). I loved the way it helped me think about my female relatives - one grandmother who would have like being a nurse, another who went a little batty being home full-time - plus the how the aspirations of my mother and mother-in-law were shaped by the times they were raised in. And I really hope the last chapter on how Americans are increasingly fed-up with our fixation on work and career is true and change happens before my kiddos turn 18!

[Betsy Hansbrough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coontz captured my memories of the time ...I was 15 and it was a book being read by just about all the mothers of my friends. I knew I did not want the life being lived by women around me, but had no idea what else could happen. Coontz makes sense of that time in the context of 50 years of movement that my daughter's cannot imagine. good for us feminist giiks.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was well written and gave me a lot of insight into The Feminine Mystique, which is a great book. Here are some of the major points I came to understand while reading A Strange Stirring:

- At the highest level of politics the feminine mystique was assumed. “women ‘never had it as good’ as you do,” presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson proclaimed to female college graduates. “And regardless of whether you like the idea of becoming a housewife just now, he assured the graduates, once it happens, you will like it.”

- The feminine mystique caused women to lose self-confidence. As one woman who taught reintroduction classes for other women who had been housewives for years wrote, “and you could see it every year. They came back with no self-confidence at all, even those who had been National Merit scholars.”

- The frequent criticism of The Feminine Mystique, that it did not apply to black and working class women, is not completely valid. As one author explained: “So despite its silence about the specific needs of working-class and minority women, and despite its occasional lapses into elitism, The Feminine Mystique’s assault on stereotypes about femininity and its defense of women’s right to work were certainly in the interests of working women, black and white.”

- While Betty Friedan presented herself in the book and in life as a housewife raising children, she actually had a history as a political activist. The reason she played down that part of her life was that when she was writing the book the McCarthy era was still going strong. Friedan did not want the rabid anti-communists to interfere with the publication and public reception of her book.

- Friedan’s ideas about marriage were in opposition to most experts ideas in 1963. As Coontz wrote: “Friedan’s optimism that expanding educational and professional opportunities for women would improve marriage seemed crazy to experts of her day. Sociologists were convinced that marital stability depended upon men specializing in earning income and women specializing in caring for home and children, with husband and wife exchanging their own distinctive products and services.”

- Friedan’s ideas are very relevant today. Coontz’s conclusion was: “Betty Friedan asked us to imagine a world where men and women can both find meaningful, socially useful work and also participate in the essential activities of love and caregiving for children, partners, parents, friends, and neighbors. Today that goal is even more relevant than when she wrote The Feminine Mystique.”

A Strange Stirring is a great book and I highly recommend it!

[Rebekah Theilen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Feminine Mystique synthesized a wide range of scholarly research and contemporary social criticism. It translated important sociological and psychological findings into accessible language and personalized such research by combining it with the stories of individual housewives. Friedan also produced a dramatic journalistic expose' of the advertisers who tried to sell to women, the psychiatric community that tried to pacify them, and the educators who patronized them. The resulting account melded riveting personal stories with challenging intellectual criticism. And the title was brilliant in its own right, a striking catchphrase that provided a simple summary of how women were constrained by prevailing social expectations."

Betty Friedan's book didn't resonate with everyone. Not all housewives were unhappy, and if they were, more involvement outside of the home, for them, was not the answer. Movements like Helen Andelin's Fascinating Womanhood became alternatives for women who weren't interested in being associated with the more mainline women's movement. A major critique of Friedan's work was her omission of the experiences of black women and poorer, working class white women. Her specific focus on the experience of American middle-class housewives made Friedan's book vulnerable to accusations of being out-of-touch with society's greater, more pressing problems. However, it was this same exclusivity that made way for her book to reach so deeply into the ones that it touched.

[TD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less about the women who read The Feminine Mystique and more about the author's biases on why Friedan stuck to discussing middle-class educated women and why she downplayed her past radical affiliations to make the book more accessible to her target audience. Coontz disputes the lore that Friedan single-handedly revived feminism from its post-war slump while noting that TFM sold over six million copies in paperback. I wish she spent more time listening to the women who told her WHY it was a successful text and less mythologizing about an idealized ur-Author who would have equally represented all races, classes, sexualities, and streams of feminism. This book worked for a specific well-educated post-war generation that struggled with malaise despite seemingly having it all.

Two stars for the measured review of demographic stats for not only the 1960s, but the prior generation.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books like this that give a thoughtful, nuanced look into cultural forces that shaped my parents and then shaped me and the world around me. Coontz uses The Feminine Mystique as a springboard to explore the broader issues Friedan tackled, and to provide clearer historical perspective of women’s identities than even Friedan could or would do.

I came away with a greater understanding of people’s experiences across the spectrum: from the depressed 1950s housewife to the young empowered 1970s career woman to the whole range of women since, who all face different societal and practical pressures. The glimpses I got softened my views on women in other positions, and made me grateful all over again for my own life, and the freedoms I have within it.

[Shae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coontz does an excellent job of explaining the impact “The Feminine Mystique” had on American women. She lays out the benefits as well as the critiques of both Friedan and her book. I appreciated the back to back list of exactly how limited women were in the 1950s. I was fascinated by Coontz’s analysis of first wave feminism and then gender retrenchment after WW2, meaning women in the 50s had practically fewer advantages than those earlier. I do think some of the book was dated, somewhat understandably since it was published in 2011. I also think Coontz should have spent more time on how Friedan’s work failed poor and Black women. She dedicates a chapter to this but it comes off as defensive of Friedan instead of objective.

[Kayla]

I appreciated how this book put the Feminine Mystique in context for me. When I read that book, it was far too dated and outside of the stories of older women I know, for me to fully appreciate its context. I enjoyed reading about how this book impacted women and men at the time. Coontz did a good job of debunking a few things too that felt off when I was reading the Feminine Mystique. Last, a conclusion I take from both books is that people currently need meaningful employment along with a rich and satisfying family life, something that was missing for women in the 50s and is now missing for many men and women.

[Vivian Witkind · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the 1950s, the House Un-American Activities Commission could say, “girls’ schools and women’s colleges contain some of the most loyal disciples of Russia.” That meant they were communists, read “ambitious.” The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963, the year I graduated from an all-girls’ high school and was off to a women's college. My mother told me to read Betty Friedan's book, and I did. A Strange Stirring is the story of the immense contribution Friedan made to the cause of feminism. The book caused more than a stir. It was revolutionary.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good follow-up to The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. This book looks as the response to Friedan's book at the time, and a few of the changes since then. It is also a critique of the book, such as Friedan was just writing to white middle-class women, that left many women out. There was some background on Friedan that was interesting as well.

[Chy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out so good and I don’t know where it went wrong. The first few chapters had me so hooked learning about all the crap women had to endure and still have to endure in 2019! But after those few chapters it just kind of dragged on and on and it was so boring. Which sucked because the premise sounded so good!

[Read Velvet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this as a look into the political and feminist scene during the time. Found that it was well analyzed and took into account aspects that may have been overlooked. It was a great starting point for me to dive deeper into some issues. I also read this before the Feminine Mystique, and glad I did so. Looking forward to reading that with a better critique and understanding.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite the "sequel" that I needed to bring me up-to-date with the movement, but still a pretty good contextual analysis of a great book. Sometimes falls into the "statistics regurgitation" rhythm of much of the genre, but is mostly well-written and sensitively analyzed.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strongly recommend the first half -- and also strongly recommend bailing midway. The social history (real + imagined) of the pre/immediate post-war periods and impact of "The Feminine Mystique" are really interesting, but the book loses its own thread the closer it gets to the present day.

[Apple Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is absolutely wonderful and terrific. i love this book.

[Jesse Jost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening and thought provoking historical analysis! I enjoyed it.

[Rin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject matter was interesting, but the text bookish style in which it's written waters down the interest.