"
The Feminine Mystique, a classic that founded the second wave of feminism, in a new 50th anniversary edition, with previously unpublished texts by the author, Betty Firedan
The Feminine Mystique explores how the social norm that defines women as frivolous, consumerist, devoted to home, husband, and children was constructed and maintained, a life to which they were destined. Originally published in 1963 in the United States and in 1971 in Brazil, the book returns to bookstores in its 50th anniversary edition, featuring previously unpublished texts by the author, Betty Friedan.
In this pioneering work, based on interviews, questionnaires, and a vast bibliography, Friedan identified a social symptom she called the "problem with no name." An existential void affecting white, heterosexual American women living in middle-class suburbs, which could not be filled by a perfect marriage, a high standard of living, or children, and which increased rates of alcoholism and mental illness in the United States after World War II.
Manipulated by consumer society, these women abandoned the suffragettes' ideal of libertarian behavior, in vogue until the 1930s, and began to embody an imaginary of femininity projected by white men who had returned from war fantasizing about sexist gender standards. Men, the providers, were destined to discover concrete, intellectual worlds. Women, the caregivers—mothers and housewives—were assigned the hollow interiority of the home.
The Feminine Mystique is an essential book for understanding the history of women's oppression and liberation, because it reveals the mechanisms of gender control, affirming what is not always obvious in a sexist society: women are complex human beings, each with their own desires and capable of managing their own lives.
“If there is a list of the most important books of the 20th century, The Feminine Mystique is on it.” - Gail Collins, The New York Times Magazine
“An easy read and deeply provocative book.” - Lucy Freeman, New York Times Book Review
“Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique , published in 1963, had the courage to say publicly and in writing that women did not feel complete just by getting married and having children.” - Lígia Martins de Almeida, Observatório da Imprensa
"
