The Feminine Mystique

By: Betty Friedan

Narrated by: Parker Posey

First published in 1963, The Feminine Mystique ignited a revolution that profoundly changed our culture, our consciousness, and our lives. Today it newly penetrates to the heart of issues determining our lives - and sounds a call to arms against the very real dangers of a new feminine mystique. The underlying issues raised by Betty Friedan strike at the core of the problems women still face at home and in the marketplace. As women continue to struggle for equality, to keep their hard-won gains, to find fulfillment in their careers, marriages, and families, The Feminine Mystique remains the seminal consciousness-raising work of our times.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Betty Friedan's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Naomi Wolf about the life and work of Betty Friedan – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.©2001 Betty Friedan (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[ 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)

"If you want to understand what has happened to American women over the last half-century, their extraordinary journey from Doris Day to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and beyond, you have to start with this book." ( The New York Times Magazine)

"One of those rare books we are endowed with only once in several decades." (Amitai Etzioni)

A landmark book of its time and relevant now

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is a landmark book of its time, and it is still relevant for all women today. This book describes the early 20th century turning of women from vital human beings, who were fulfilled by higher education and work, into a mystique that proved to be a mix of self-suppression and repression, which eventually was supported by society at large and by women themselves.

How did women go from being over 50% of university educated people in the 1900’s through 1930’s to a human being who was supposed to be dedicated to others who gained her sense of self-worth and fulfillment from serving and giving up her own personhood? How did this effect the women themselves, and their family? How did it affect the age at which women married?

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, how did women, who while society was telling them that they should be happy, start breaking out of the mold of the feminine mystique.

How damaging was the illusion of the feminine mystique to women themselves, husbands, daughters, and sons? How does this affect us today?

How was this related to profit? There was a lot of profit to be made at the expense of the wellbeing of women. This is still true.


I highly recommend that everyone read this book.

This is an inspirational novel

I loved the narrator, toward the end of the book I did feel she was more soft spoken making it harder to hear. Over all I lover her voice.
This book is amazing! I never have time to read book now with an over demanding full time job. I'm glad there was an audible book for it. Please give it a listen and it will change the way you view femininity.

Necessary & Captivating

This book is amazing, illustrative, and educational. This truly is a classic. I now have a better understanding of the culture in which I live. I have a better understanding of how post-war society impacted family lives and especially the roles for women in the 1950s in the United States.

Relevant as ever

This book should be on everyone's required reading as a preteen. Still as relevant to today's modern world as it was to the world 30 years ago.

Interesting story.

Many things have changed since this book was written, some things are the same and a few have reverted. This should be required reading for girls in middle school and again in high school.

I think those girls need to understand where behavior patterns lead them so they can make good choices before they lock themselves into lives with consequences they don't anticipate.

That isn't a subtitle way of saying young women can't have a full range of choices but knowing where each choice could lead you could be invaluable.

By the way, I am a 68 year old guy married for 40 years to a stay at home mom. We have two married daughters. Each has a baby daughter. Wife and daughters are college graduates. Each chose a different mystique for living their lives.

Important book

Friedan's book was very good. The reader had to put themselves in the author's historical context, where many present day rights for women did not exist yet. Friedan does an excellent job painting a picture of what it was like to be a woman when there was far less freedom for women in American society, especially in terms of expectations and employment opportunities. An obviously important book in the social and political history of Western society that provides crucial context of how much our culture has developed.

New Perspective

A really interesting look at the other side (I'm a man) that answered some question that I had but didn't know that I had. Gave me lots of other ideas to think over as well. I'd really recommend it.

Finally!!!!!

I wish I would have read this book a long time ago. Betty Friedan does an excellent job of summarizing for me personally what I have known to to be true, but couldn't verbalize. Women deserve more. They deserve to be free to pursue what fulfills them in life. They deserve to be treated equally. They deserve to be valued for their contribution. They are deserving. A must read for every woman regardless of what she does for a living. What's amazing to me was that this was written so long ago and still so relevant. Parker Posey was the perfect narrator.

An interesting view

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book was very enlightening at times, and also very infuriating at time. If you are trying to look at it as a piece from a time-capsul, it's tolerable. Some of it is great knowledge into the lives of women before today's time. But the political leaning of the book, and some of the statements are just false, or are ideologically misguided.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I could not finish this book, as around 2/3 of the way through it, it just became unbearable (from a content POV).

What does Parker Posey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She has a great, soothing voice. She did a good job.

A Must-read for Readers of American Feminism

A landmark book, The Feminine Mystique is still, in 2016, just as eye-opening and current as it was when first published in 1964.

About to teach to American students my first Women's Studies course this fall on French Feminisms, I have to recommend this classic work as one of the fundamental texts of 20th-century thought and the dramatic changes in human rights that occurred over the course if that strangest of epochs yet in recorded history.

This text not only brought be back into the concrete world I grew up in (I was a Kennedy baby), but away from the abstractions of French feminisms into a world I witnessed as a child. I helps me understand, for example, my mother, a teenage bride and housewife until she learned to drive a car, pass the exam, then, in 1970, take a job outside of the home, then eventually night classes in typing, even getting her GED and ending up in a job she loved until the day she retired.

The women and men I will teach this fall owe Betty Friedan a great deal. So do I.

In fine, do read this book. It's brilliant.