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

Rebecca Traister

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

A sharp revisiting of the generation that was floored by Betty Friedan'sThe Feminine Mystique (1963), and how the book is still relevant today.

In order to understand how Friedan's bestseller affected the World War II generation of women in America, Coontz (History, Family Studies/Evergreen State Coll.; Marriage, a History, 2006, etc.) delved into Friedan's archives at the Schlesinger Library, in Cambridge, Mass., as well as conducted surveys of her own. She taps into the incendiary reaction originally provoked by the book, and thereby is able to elucidate more clearly how the women's movement evolved over the succeeding decades. Having done their part for the war effort, the middle-class, mostly white women of Friedan's late-'50s/early-'60s study welcomed their men back and were safely ensconced in the home, aspiring to an ideal of wifeliness and motherhood perfectly calibrated by Madison Avenue and the popular magazines of the day. Although many of the women were the first in their families to attend college, many of them were "tricked" into believing that their greater purpose in life was to serve husbands and raise children, rather than pursue a career. Ultimately, they succumbed to what Friedan called a "nameless aching dissatisfaction." which was something like emotional paralysis and existential malaise. Psychologists and so-called experts often blamed the problem on the women themselves for their inability to conform, but Friedan diagnosed it presciently as the thwarting of "the need to grow and fulfill their potentialities as human beings." In fact, therewasa name for what was ailing American women of the era—sex discrimination—and Coontz examines it with a battery of facts and figures. She traces Friedan's research and some gaps in her argument—e.g., she largely ignored African-American and working-class women—and the creative spin she gave to her own background. Coontz concludes that we still have far to go in achieving Friedan's vision of equality between the sexes.

A valuable education for women and men. For readers looking for a thorough biography of Friedan, check out Judith Hennessee's Betty Friedan: Her Life (1999).

The Barnes & Noble Review

Since its publication in 1963, The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan has been credited with launching the contemporary women's movement and decried for tearing housewives from home. In 2007, the book even ended up on a conservative magazine's list of top-ten most harmful books, just under Hitler's Mein Kampf. Love it or hate it, there's no question the bestseller was revelatory for a certain segment of women -- largely white, educated, and middle-class -- who found that a life limited to marriage and motherhood wasn't as fulfilling as society told them it should be.

In A Strange Stirring, historian Stephanie Coontz examines how and why Friedan's book inspired such a passionate response from so many. Excerpting from interviews, oral histories, and letters Friedan received, Coontz captures the book's impact on real women: "I didn't know why I was so unhappy until I read The Feminine Mystique. Then something clicked"; "It left me breathless"; "I got my mind back."

Moving beyond personal testimonials, Coontz makes abundant use of statistics to dissect the post-war period as experienced by American women more broadly -- including African-American and working-class women, who were left out of Friedan's study. She also considers Friedan herself, critiquing her more exaggerated and oversimplified claims, praising her for those observations that remain relevant. Ever more central to the workforce, women today must now face many of the economic pressures that once bore down almost solely on men. As Coontz's enlightening book demonstrates, Friedan's core message about the need to balance meaningful work and family life endures.

--Erica Wetter