The book that changed the consciousness of a country-and the world. Landmark, groundbreaking, classic-these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This is the book that defined the problem that has no name, that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since. A national bestseller, with over 1 million copies sold. The Feminine Mystique] now feels both revolutionary and utterly contemporary. . . . Four decades later, millions of individual transformations later, there is still so much to learn from this book. . . . Those who think of it as solely a feminist manifesto ought to revisit its pages to get a sense of the magnitude of the research and reporting Friedan undertook.-Anna Quindlen The book that pulled the trigger on history.-Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock A] bridge between conservative and radical elements in feminism, an ardent advocate of harmony and human values.-Marilyn French, Esquire One of those rare books we are endowed with only once in several decades.-Amitai Etzioni, author of The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of American Society

Landmark, groundbreaking, classic-these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This is the book that defined the problem that has no name, that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since. A national bestseller, with over 1 million copies sold.

First published in 1963, "The Feminine Mystique" ignited a revolution that profoundly changed culture, consciousness, and lives. Today it newly penetrates to the heart of issues determining--and sounds a call to arms against the very real dangers of a new feminine mystique in the economic and political turbulence of the 1990s.

Metamorphosis: two generations later — Twenty years after — Problem that has no name — Happy housewife heroine — Crisis in woman's identity — Passionate journey — Sexual solipsism of Sigmund Freud — Functional freeze, the feminine protest, and Margaret Mead — Sex-directed educators — Mistake choice — Sexual sell — Housewifery expands to fill the time available — Sex-seekers — Progressive dehumanization: the comfortable concentration camp — Forfeited self — New life plan for women.