Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 slightly overzealous, poorly written, but some interesting ideas August 29, 2008
First off I'll declare my bias, in that I'm a man; I believe I'm unusually feminist, however a man nonetheless. Secondly, this review needs to be framed within the premise that it's a review of its value in 2008, rather than in the early 1960's when it was originally published, and so the emphasis is more upon recommendation on whether to read it now, than commentary on its historical or political value.
That said, Friedan's tome on the re-oppression of women through the 1950's, after their earlier liberation was overall not particularly enjoyable and quickly became a laborious read. Bearing in mind that such books are not necessarily meant to be fun, I found Friedan's writing style overly repetitive, often confusing and apparently self-contradictory.
Friedan made some very good arguments and her concept of the Feminine Mystique, in other words the oppression of women by societal pressure to conform to the stay-at-home housewife stereotype, hit the nail on the head and still has strong resonance today. However her arguments were unfortunately undermined by her poor writing and use of pseudo-scientific methods to evidence her argument, for example providing anecdote after anecdote to illustrate her points. This left me asking myself about the hundreds of thousands of American women she didn't personally speak to, even though I agreed with most of what she argued. A further related bias, which she freely admits herself within the book, was that her samples were specifically from middle-class women.
What made the book most difficult to stomach, was the unbalanced nature of her argument. To call Friedan's suggestions that the Feminine Mystique is comparable to Nazi concentration camps, is responsible for increased drug-use in teenagers, or for lack of courageousness in American GIs and homosexuality, overzealous I think most will agree is an understatement.
I gave it 3 stars because on balance "it's OK". However, The Feminine Mystique is overblown, difficult, and although the underlying premise is sound, I personally would not recommend this book to anyone. If however, you take the approach adopted by one of Amazon's list maniacs (feminist texts I must read before I die), then I suppose this may be worth reading.
 Housewife phobia June 13, 2008
I have avoided reading this book for many years, because I knew from what I'd heard about it that Betty Friedan had a low opinion of housewives, and as a housewife myself I didn't think reading it would do me any good. However, I eventually decided to take the plunge and see what it was all about.
I have to say that it is even worse than I thought. I knew that Ms Friedan didn't think much of housewives, but I wasn't quite prepared for the venemous contempt that she directs towards us in this book. Women who stay at home are, according to her, infantile and mentally arrested. We move through life like zombies, unconnected to the 'real' world (it goes without saying that the world of paid employment is real, the world of home is not). She really puts the boot into us:
'There are aspects of the housewife role that make it almost impossible for a woman of adult intelligence to retain a sense of human identity, the firm core of self or 'I' without which a human being, man or woman, is not truly alive.' Well, that puts us in our place, doesn't it?
When she wrote this book, in the early 60s, she was convinced that the reason why so many women were being divorced by their husbands was that the husbands were sick of supporting dependent women. Possibly her venemous dislike of housewives may have misled her a little, since although most married women are no longer housewives, the divorce rate shows no sign of declining. She also thought housewives were responsible for battered children and homosexuality. However, neither of those things are in noticeable decline either.
Possibly, despite what Mrs Friedan thought, we are not responsible for all the ills of the world after all.
Not as good as the 2nd Sex May 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An interesting read but compared to other feminist literature it involves quite a small group of people. Namely housewives living in the USA during the 1950's and 60's. The underlying problem is repeated throughout the book and surrounds the fact that, these ladies, despite often being quite bright and having the benefit of a good education decided to give everything up at an early age to marry and have children. Betty Friedan looks at the reasoning behind it and the regrets these women so often have regarding wasting their lives. There is really no one to blame for this state of affairs other than the women themselves. Most of us women undergo the dream of a family and happy home life before realising that it is quite boring and we miss out on many more very exciting things in the world. Sad, but we are all pulled by our instincts and Betty Friedan doesnt really grasp this fact which is brilliantly related in Simone De Beauvoirs book 'The 2nd Sex'. Additionally other books will explain more fully how our genes are programmed for survival and reproduction of the species which is why people sabotage their plans for the strong urge to have a baby. None of this is mentioned and Betty almost believes there is a conspiracy going on rather than women have the money and homes in which to indulge their primeval longings albeit disasterously in the long run. This is an interesting book but not that broad and the message is repeated throughout it without really adding anything of further interest to the reader. Certainly an example of one of the steps of the Womens Liberation Movement and of interest to the feminist reader for that reason.
 Classic Feminist Text September 10, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
An academic, thoroughly researched yet easy read. It seems a bit dated now, 43 years on, but a must-read for anyone interested in equality. The issues now are slightly more complicated than just getting women into work, and discouraging housewifery. If anything, the celebration of work by Friedan hasn't helped us keep our feminine serenity. The world economy as it is means that those in work are overemployed - why can't we have a 3 day weekend now? The influence of this book can't be underestimated - I read Stepford Wives recently and it is a fiction which seems to be based around this work!
A classic, but not a gospel February 5, 2005
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Sometimes you have to read a classic to fully understand why it had such an impact. This is one fantastic book, and I can appreciate why it moved millions to look at the relationship between the sexes more closely. It is a testament to its many 'truths' that it still commands respect and attention 40 years on, and the many descriptions of how the 1950s/1960s left women feeling isolated and powerless, plus the many changes that show they have a path out of domesticity, are the things that I still value most about this text. However, time has shown up some of the books faults. For me, the most glaring - and the one that reveals how a political view can incline a writer to fit data to a hypothesis, rather than the other way around, is the poor discussion of spending power and adverstising. Friedan reports that 75% of money earned is spent by women, and tries to turn this on its head to claim that they are still 'victims' because advertisers pay so much attention to manipulating them. This is a bit like saying that if men had 3 votes to women's 1, that men would be 'victims' because politicians were more interesting in winning men's votes. Women have spending power in our society and this gives them not only a lot of economic power but collective control over much of the media (who must not offend women to retain adverstising revenues). A brilliant book, but not faultless. For a similarly sympathetic book from men's perspective try to get your hands on a copy of "Why Men Are The Way They Are", by Warren Farrell.
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