A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (32 page)

On the controversy over whether NOW would recognize lesbians as a legitimate part of the women’s movement, see Lillian Faderman,
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).

Readers of my chapter on African-American women and white working-class women will recognize my immense debt to Bart Landry,
Black Working Wives: Pioneers of the American Family Revolution
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). Primary sources on educated African-American women in the 1940s and 1950s include Marion Cuthbert,
Education and Marginality: A Study of the Negro Woman College Graduate
(1942; New York: Garland, 1987), and Jeanne Noble,
The Negro Woman’s College Education
(New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1956).

Many of the books on women’s history and the women’s movement cited above pay attention to diversity among women by race, ethnicity, and class, but for more detailed studies of African-American women and other racial-ethnic groups, see: Vicki Ruiz and Ellen Carol Debois, eds.,
Unequal Sisters
, 4th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2008); Vicki Karen Anderson,
Changing Woman: A History of Racial Ethnic Women in Modern America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); Benita Roth,
Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America’s Second Wave
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Winifred Breines,
The Trouble Between Us: An Uneasy History of White and Black Women in the Feminist Movement
(New York: Oxford University
Press, 2006); Ann Valk,
Radical Sisters: Second Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington, DC
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008); Bruce Fehn, “African-American Women and the Struggle for Equality in the Meatpacking Industry, 1940-1960,”
Journal of Women’s History
10 (1998): 45-69; Ruth Feldstein,
Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American Liberalism, 1930-65
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000); Becky Thompson, “Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism,”
Feminist Studies
28 (2002): 337- 360; Jane Dabel,
A Respectable Woman: The Public Roles of African American Women in 19th-Century New York
(New York: New York University Press, 2008); Denise Segura, “Working at Motherhood: Chicana and Mexican Immigrant Mothers and Employment,” in
Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency
, ed. Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Grace Chang, and Linda Rennie Forcey (New York: Routledge, 1994); bell hooks,
Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
(Boston: South End Press, 1981); Elizabeth Spelman,
Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought
(Boston: Beacon, 1988); Gloria T. Hull, “History/My History,” in
Changing Subjects: The Making of Feminist Literary Criticism
, ed. Gayle Greene and Coppelia Kahn (New York: Routledge, 1993); Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds.,
All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave
(Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1982); Paula Giddings,
When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America
(New York: William Morrow, 1984); Riché Jeneen Daniel Barnes, “Black Women Have Always Worked,” in
The Changing Landscape of Work and Family in the American Middle Class
, ed. Elizabeth Rudd and Lara Descartes (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008); Stephanie Gilmore,
Feminist Coalitions: Historical Perspectives on Second Wave Feminism in the United States
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008); Vicki Ruiz,
From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Donna Franklin, “African Americans and the Birth of Modern Marriage,” in
Families as They Really Are
, ed. Barbara Risman (New York: Norton, 2010).

For a review of trends in African-American inequality, see Michael Katz, Mark Stern, and Jamie Fader, “The New African American Inequality,”
Journal of American History
(June 2005): 75-108.

The detailed surveys of wives of blue-collar workers in the 1950s appear in Lee Rainwater, Richard Coleman, and Gerald Handel,
Working-man’s Wife: Her Personality, World and Life Style
(New York: Oceana Publications, 1959).

Works dealing with the history of working-class women, both whites and minorities, and their role in the struggle for gender equality, include: Dorothy Sue Cobble,
The Other Women’s Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004); Mirra Komarovsky,
Blue Collar Marriage
(New York: Vintage Books, 1962); Alice Kessler-Harris,
Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1982); Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, “The Major Myth of the Women’s Movement,”
Dissent
(Fall 1999): 83-86; Dennis Deslippe,
Rights, Not Roses: Unions and the Rise of Working-Class Feminism, 1945-1980
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000); Myra Marx Ferree, “Working-Class Jobs: Paid Work and Housework as Sources of Satisfaction,”
Social Problems
23 (1976): 431-444; Nancy Gabin,
Feminism in the Labor Movement: Women and the United Auto Workers, 1935-1975
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990); Ruth Milkman,
Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex During World War II
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987); Annelise Orleck,
Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995).

Portions of Chapter 9 appeared previously in my article “Sharing the Load,” in
The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything
, ed. Heather Boushey and Ann O’Leary (Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2009). For the classic arguments favoring specialization within marriage and warning of the dangers of “the independence effect” see: Gary Becker,
A Treatise on the Family
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981); Gary Becker, “Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual
Division of Labor,”
Journal of Labor Economics
3 (1985): S33-S58; and Talcott Parsons, “Age and Sex in the Social Structure of the United States,”
American Sociological Review
7 (1942): 604-616.

For current trends in marriage dynamics and marital satisfaction, see: Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, “Marriage and Divorce: Changes and Their Driving Forces,”
Journal of Economic Perspectives
21 (2007): 27-52; Zvika Neeman, Andrew Newman, and Claudia Olivetti, “Are Career Women Good for Marriage?” Institute for Economic Development Discussion Paper 167, April 2007; Adam Isen and Betsey Stevenson, “Women’s Education and Family Behavior: Trends in Marriage, Divorce and Fertility,” November 24, 2008,
http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/betseys/papers/Marriage-divorce-education.pdf
; Heather Boushey, “Baby Panic Book Skews Data,”
Women’s E-News
, July 3, 2002,
www.womensenews.org/story/commentary/020703/baby-panic-book-skews-data-misses-actual-issue
; Lynn Prince Cooke and Janeen Baxter, “Families in International Context,”
Journal of Marriage and Family
, forthcoming; John Gottman,
Why Marriages Succeed or Fail
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994); Christine Whelan,
Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); Christie F. Boxer and Christine B. Whelan, “Changing Mate Preferences 1939-2008,” unpublished working paper, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 2008; Robert Schoen, Stacy Rogers, and Paul Amato, “Wives’ Employment and Spouses’ Marital Happiness,”
Journal of Family Issues
27 (2006): 506-528; Paul Amato, Alan Booth, David Johnson, and Stacey Rogers,
Alone Together: How Marriage in America Is Changing
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); Lynn Prince Cooke, “‘Doing Gender’ in Context: Household Bargaining and the Risk of Divorce in Germany and the United States,”
American Journal of Sociology
112 (2006): 442-472; Lynn Prince Cooke, “‘Traditional’ Marriages Now Less Stable than Ones Where Couples Share Work and Household Chores,”
www.contemporaryfamilies.org/subtemplate.php?t=briefingPapers&ext=LynnCooke
; Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers,
She Works, He Works
(New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996); E. Wethington and R. Kessler, “Employment, Parental Responsibility, and
Psychological Distress,”
Journal of Family Issues
10 (1989): 527-546; Janet Hyde, John DeLamateur, and Erri Hewitt, “Sexuality and the Dual-Earner Couple: Multiple Roles and Sexual Functioning,”
Journal of Family Psychology
12 (1998): 354-368; Constance Gager and Scott Yabiku, “Who Has the Time? The Relationship Between Household Labor Time and Sexual Frequency,”
Journal of Family Issues
31 (2009): 135-163; Neil Chetnik,
Voicemale
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); Sharon Meers and Joanna Strober,
Getting to 50/50
(New York: Bantam Books, 2009).

For changes in the household division of labor and time with children, see Oriel Sullivan and Scott Coltrane, “Men’s Changing Contribution to Housework and Child Care,” Discussion Paper on Changing Family Roles, briefing paper prepared for the 11th Annual Conference of the Council on Contemporary Families, April 25-26, 2008,
www.contemporaryfamilies.org/subtemplate.php?t=briefingPapers&ext=menshousework
, and Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson, and Melissa Milkie,
Changing Rhythms of Family Life
(New York: Russell Sage, 2006).

On the complex determinants of gender equity at home and work, see Lynn Prince Cooke,
Gender-Class Equality in the Political Economy
(New York: Routledge, 2011). On the attitudes of young men and women toward gender equality and family arrangements, see Kathleen Gerson,
The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation Is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

On the continuing mystiques of gender, sexuality, and consumerism, see: Barbara Risman and Elizabeth Seale, “Betwixt and Be Tween: Gender Contradictions Among Middle Schoolers,” in
Families as They Really Are
, ed. Barbara Risman (New York: Norton, 2010); Susan Douglas,
Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work Is Done
(New York: Times Books, 2010); Sharon Lamb and Lyn Brown,
Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes
(New York: St. Martin’s, 2006); Margaret Talbot, “Little Hotties,”
New Yorker,
December 4, 2006; Peggy Orenstein, “Playing at Sexy,”
New York Times
, June 7, 2010; Stephen Hinshaw with Rachel Kranz,
The Triple Bind: Saving Our Teenage Girls from Today’s Pressures
(New York: Random House, 2009);
Deborah Tolman,
Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk About Sexuality
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002); Ariel Levy,
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
(New York: Free Press, 2005). On the motherhood mystique, see Judith Warner,
Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
(New York: Riverhead Books, 2005) and Sharon Hays,
The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).

Good sources on the continuing discrimination against working women, especially mothers, include: Shelley Correll, Stephen Barnard, and In Paik, “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?”
American Journal of Sociology
112 (2007): 1297-1338; Catalyst, “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t,” July 2007,
www.catalyst.org/publication/83/the-double-bind-dilemma-for-women-in-leadership-damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t
; and Ann Crittendon,
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001). Also see Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever,
Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003).

For research on women’s employment trends and the debate over “opting out,” see: Claudia Goldin, “The Quiet Revolution that Transformed Women’s Employment, Education, and Family,”
American Economic Review
96 (2006): 1-21; Heather Boushey, “Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth,” Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper, 2005; Linda Hirshman,
Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World
(New York: Viking, 2006); Leslie Bennetts,
The Feminine Mistake
(New York: Hyperion, 2007); David Cotter, Paula England, and Joan Hermsen, “Moms and Jobs,” in
American Families: A Multicultural Reader
, ed. Stephanie Coontz, Maya Parson, and Gabrielle Raley (New York: Routledge, 2008); Arielle Kuperberg and Pamela Stone, “The Media Depiction of Women Who Opt Out,”
Gender & Society
22 (August 2008): 497-517; Sylvia Ann Hewlett,
Off Ramps and On Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
(Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007); Pamela Stone,
Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Work
and Head Home
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007); Joan Williams, Jessica Manvell, and Stephanie Bornstein,
“Opt Out” or Pushed Out? How the Press Covers Work/Family Conflict: The Untold Story of Why Women Leave the Workforce
(San Francisco: University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Center for WorkLife Law, 2006); Joan Williams, “The Opt-Out Revolution Revisited,”
American Prospect
, March 2007; Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, “Transitions: Career and Family Life Cycles of the Educational Elite,”
American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings
98 (2008): 363-369.

For information on work-family issues, see: Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling,
The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005); Heather Boushey and Joan Williams, “The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict: The Poor, the Professionals, and the Missing Middle,” Center for American Progress and the Center for WorkLife Law at the UC Hastings College of the Law, January 25, 2010; all the articles in Susanne Bianchi, Lynn Casper, and Rosalind King, eds.,
Work, Family, Health, and Well-Being
(Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005); Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg,
Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with Today’s Nontraditional Workforce
(Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007); E. Wethington and R. Kessler, “Employment, Parental Responsibility, and Psychological Distress,”
Journal of Family Issues
10 (1989): 527-546; Rosalind Chait, “On Multiple Roles: Past, Present, and Future,” and other chapters in Karen Korabik, Donna Leto, and Denise Whitehead, eds.,
Handbook of Work-Family Integration
(Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2008); Deborah Carr, “The Psychological Consequences of Midlife Men’s Social Comparisons with Their Young Adult Sons,”
Journal of Marriage and Family
67 (February 2005): 240-250; Jerry Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson,
The Time-Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004); Ellen Galinsky, Kerstin Aurmann, and James T. Bond, National Study of the Changing Workforce, 2008, “Times Are Changing: Gender and Generation at Work and at Home” (New York: Families and Work Institute, 2009).