A Problem That Has No Name

A great and insightful guide to the second and first-wave feminist movements. It has two essays, the first and titular one, being what led to Friedan’s Feminine Mystique. The second is about the origins of the feminist movement in the 1800s and early 1900s. I learned a few new things about both waves and had many favorite quotes underlined! My only complaint is that Friedan seemed to assume/position all the women’s rights feminists as also being active abolitionists, when in fact many of them were racist and viewed black women as separate from “their” own cause as white women. However, maybe this was not common knowledge at the time of Friedan’s writings in which case I can understand that lack of knowledge.

These little Penguin classics are perfect for reading an author’s work without dedicating yourself to a larger work of theirs before knowing if you’ll enjoy their writing style or not.