Conference Marks the Fiftieth Anniversary of The Feminine Mystique

Dr Sinead McEneaney in the School of Arts and Humanities at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham is to co-host a conference that explores the international impact of American writer, activist and feminist Betty Friedan’s text The Feminine Mystique. The sixth annual conference of the Society for the History of Women in the Americas has been co-organised by scholars from St Mary’s, Brunel University, Westminster University and Royal Holloway University of London, where it is being held on Saturday 30th November. The conference marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s publication The Feminine Mystique, which had an enormous influence on academic and popular audiences and changed feminist discourse about the housewife throughout the Western world. During the day a keynote lecture will be delivered by Prof S. J. Kleinberg and delegates will also have the opportunity to participate in a roundtable discussion on Friedan’s legacy. Panels will also address a wide variety of topics, including women’s paid employment, the figure of the housewife, evolving notions of the family, and gender and education. St Mary’s Programme Director for History Dr McEneaney said, “When Friedan’s book came out in 1963, it appealed to a new generation of women who couldn’t quite reconcile the reality of their lives with the new possibilities that post-war America seemed to offer. Friedan may have set out to speak to women just like her -- educated, white, middle-class -- but her book had an explosive effect on women of all ages, colours and class in the Anglophone world and beyond.” Delegates are encouraged to read or re-read The Feminine Mystique ahead of the conference and join in the conversation on Twitter using @FemmysAt50 or the hashtag #FemmysAt50. The conference is being held at the Bedford Centre for the History of Women, Royal Holloway University of London in the Main Lecture Theatre, Founders Building and costs £15 (£10 concessions). To download the programme and book your place please visit the website.