Book 11: The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
I first heard of this book when I was 16, mentioned in my history class. Like with Uncle Tom's Cabin, I was determined to read this historically significant book. TWO copies were in my mother's basement! Despite her complaints again that reading an old book in public "looked poor," I read it and hid the second copy in case she confiscated the first along with my Alanis Morissette CD's. The Feminine Mystique was the major turning point for me. I'd already discovered the kind of Wicca books available at Borders Books a few years earlier, but this was the first time I encountered feminism applied to practical, mundane life. Although I read this 40 years after it was published, it was as though it'd been written specifically for me! My mother & childhood parish formed me to be a stereotypical 60's housewife and I was very depressed at that time since I was failing at it so badly. Although it would be a few years yet until I learned that marriage &...