This realization alone had a profound impact on a generation of women often ignored by history and, in some cases, it saved their lives. Through a review of letters written to Friedan and oral histories conducted by the author, Coontz illustrates that many women who read Friedan's book were reassured that the isolation they felt taking care of home and family was not unique. But Stephanie Coontz's A Strange Stirring takes the novel approach of presenting the history of the women whose experiences The Feminine Mystique recounted, alongside a biography of the book that 'pulled the trigger on history' (xv).Ĭoontz concedes that even though The Feminine Mystique might feel dated to the modern reader, at the time it helped expose the inadequacy of the homemaker role, on its own, to provide women the kind of emotional and intellectual fulfillment they needed. Many historians have been fascinated with Friedan's life and her, often uncomfortable, involvement in the rebirth of feminist activism in the 1970s. Cover of A Strange Stirring The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s Friedan had explained their own, as yet unnamed, frustrations. At the same time, a distinct group of white, educated, middle-class women were overcome with a sense of gratitude. On the one hand, American men were upset at Friedan's suggestion that their housewives could possibly want anything more than to see their children off safely to school, to take care of their husbands after a long day at work, and to keep their houses spotless. When Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was released in 1963, it split the allegedly tranquil lives of the 'greatest generation' in two.

The feminine mystique original cover