Rating:
3.5 Stars

In a nutshell:
Four women living outside D.C. in the 1960s find themselves at crossroads, motivated by reading ‘The Feminine Mystique.’

Best for:
Those who enjoy stories of women finding themselves. Those who need a reminder of where we’ve been given where we are headed.

Quote that made me think:
“Somebody has to have the babies, don’t they? If they can?”

Why I chose it:
I was looking for a book about women, written by a women, as I’ve been reading a few books where men are the authors and protagonists.

Review:
Margaret, Viv, Charlotte and Bitsie all live in an exurb of Washington D.C., and are all facing challenges in their lives. Margaret is the main focus of the book, and the one bringing together the others for a book club, which starts with reading “The Feminine Mystique.”

Margaret is raising three children and isn’t feeling fulfilled. Her husband can be a bit of an ass, so she seeks support from her friends and neighbors. Charlotte is new to town, a bit brash, seemingly a bit detached from her children and husband. Viv and her husband have a wonderful marriage, and six kids. Viv is about to go back to work as a nurse. Bitsie is young, without children, and married to a somewhat older man who is also a veterinarian.

The book focuses on the friendships these women build, but also about the challenges they face in a world that views women as second class citizens. Viv tries to get birth control but needs her husbands sign-off, and in between the appointments she ends up pregnant. Margaret tries to open up a bank account for her own paychecks and is told she needs her husband’s permission. All face men – sometimes their own relatives – who belittle them and treat their interests as inconsequential and irrelevant.

While the author does speak to what Friedan missed out on with “The Feminine Mystique” – basically ignoring women who aren’t white, suburban and middle class – this book does also suffer a bit of the same. There is talk of civil rights, and there is one tertiary Black character, but the four main women are white and suburban, and their challenges, while infuriating, are not quite what one would call universal. For example, there is a bit of a discussion of money, but in reality none of the women or their families are at risk of serious economic challenge, so discussions around income don’t have the same kind of urgency. Additionally, none of the women choose the path of not having children, which would have been truly revolutionary.

This book was published last year, but given the optimism in it, I would have thought it was released in like 2010 or something. So much of what is discussed seems both so far away and so threateningly near. The pace the US is going, especially with things like the SAVE act, and the overturning of Roe vs Wade, women are getting pushed further and further backwards. Will we be able to have our own bank accounts? Will we be able to vote without jumping through hoops that men don’t need to? Will we be forced to have children, or be economically punished if we don’t? It kind of seems likely, which reminds me we haven’t actually come that far if it’s so easy to get back to where we started.

Would I recommend it to its target audience:
Yes. Despite the issues mentioned above, I enjoyed the storytelling and the character development quite a lot.