Book Bearings
Cover of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique

  • 410 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 1963
  • 52 editions

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

Landmark, groundbreaking, classic―these adjectives barely do justice to the pioneering vision and lasting impact of The Feminine Mystique. Published in 1963, it gave a pitch-perfect description of “the problem that has no name”: the insidious beliefs and institutions that undermined women’s confidence in their intellectual capabilities and kept them in the home.

Writing in a time when the average woman first married in her teens and 60 percent of women students dropped out of college to marry, Betty Friedan captured the frustrations and thwarted ambitions of a generation and showed women how they could reclaim their lives. Part social chronicle, part manifesto, The Feminine Mystique is filled with fascinating anecdotes and interviews as well as insights that continue to inspire.

Good for readers who want: psychology and feminism.

  • Psychology
  • Social and moral questions
  • Women, psychology
  • Droits
  • Women
  • Social conditions
  • Feminism
  • Women's rights

2 About Betty Friedan

1921–2006

Betty Friedan (; February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

3 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment