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Book Reviews of The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique
Author: Betty Friedan
ISBN-13: 9780440324973
ISBN-10: 0440324971
Publication Date: 10/1/1984
Pages: 480
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 36

3.9 stars, based on 36 ratings
Publisher: Laurel
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

12 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 18 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is a must read for all women. It's just part of our culture!
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The "volume that launched a major social movement". A must-read for every woman.
littlececilia avatar reviewed The Feminine Mystique on
Helpful Score: 1
Required reading in college, the general context of the book and its message are still important for us today, especially since we still don't have equal opportunities, pay or treatment of women and girls even in our modern society.
emmaausten7 avatar reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 54 more book reviews
Critical work to the feminist movement.
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 84 more book reviews
This is the book that shows that a woman can be her own self and achieve her own goals without sacrificing either marriage or motherhood.
This is the book that broke the conspiracy of silence about the plight of the American woman and the dehumanizing trap she was in.
This is the book that made all the difference-
The Feminine Mystique
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 24 more book reviews
Always a classic; has updated forwards that are very good, too.
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 34 more book reviews
The classic consciousness-raising book of the modern feminist movement -- what more is there to say?
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 43 more book reviews
Feminism Manifesto!
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 18 more book reviews
A great book. One for the literary collector.
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 13 more book reviews
claassic
reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 37 more book reviews
So this is where it all started !!! Informational for me .
sphinx avatar reviewed The Feminine Mystique on + 97 more book reviews
A classic feminist work that seeded my own feminist consciousness in my teens. This book gets into the social constructs in our society that are used to justify women's oppression, such as the idea that women are "naturally suited" to housework and other unpaid drudgery. This book clearly and methodically describes all the toxic mind-traps that have been harming women in the 20th and now 21st centuries.

My main complaint is that Ms. Friedan exposes her own profound homophobia and raging ignorance of the realities of homosexuality in a grotesque way in chapter 11, with such absurdities as "the homosexuality that is spreading like a murky smog over the American scene is no less ominous than..." or "Male homosexuality was and is far more common than female homosexuality" or "People who have a low self-esteem have a tendency to cling to their own sex because it is less frightening" or "The role of the mother in homosexuality was pinpointed by Freud...".

Any woman who trusts Freud as an "expert" on sexuality should have her opinions regarded with a big hunk of salt by other women. Freud was a notorious misogynist who excused and explained away all manner of horrific sexual abuses committed by men against women and children.

So, take chapter 11 with a whole lot of salt, but most of the book is right on target. Great read overall. 4.5/5 stars.