April 12, 2011
Hear Stephanie Coontz, author of “A Strange Stirring:
The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s”
Stephanie Coontz, author, teacher and expert on marriage and the family, will discuss what
women and men of the UN-liberated 1960s really experienced as revealed in her most recent
book, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and
American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s. The afterhours event will be at the Olympia Timberland Library
on Wednesday, April 27 from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m.
Based on extensive research on postwar gender roles and
nearly 200 interviews with women and men who read
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in 1963 and
1964, A Strange Stirring introduces us to the real life
counterparts of the characters on TV’s hit show, “Mad
Men.”
Coontz’s website summarizes: “…challenging both
conservative and liberal myths about Betty Friedan, A
Strange Stirring reveals how a generation of women
came to realize their dissatisfaction with domestic life didn't reflect a personal inadequacy but
rather a social and political injustice. Coontz examines women's changing status from the 1920s
through the 1950s, compares the dilemmas of working-class and middle-class women, white and
black, in the early 1960s, and illuminates the new mystiques and new possibilities facing men
and women today.
Stephanie Coontz is a nationally known expert on marriage and family. She teaches History and
Family Studies at The Evergreen State College and is Director of Research and Public Education
at the Council on Contemporary Families.
The author of Marriage: A History, The Way We Never Were, and The Way We Really Are,
Coontz has written about marriage and family issues in many national publications including the
New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, and Psychology Today. She has also lectured across
the United States, Europe and Japan and she has been interviewed across the nation for A
Strange Stirring. She lives in Olympia, Washington. Her website is www.stephaniecoontz.com.
The Olympia Timberland Library is located at 313 8th Avenue SE. For more information, please
contact the library at (360) 352-0595 or go to www.TRL.org.
Timberland Regional Library provides for the information, reading and lifelong learning needs of the Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and
Thurston county public at 27 community public libraries and 7 library service partner locations. The library system is funded mainly by local
property taxes. Anyone needing special accommodations to participate in a library’s program may contact the library one week in advance.