The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan will be published in ebook by Thread. It is the first time the book will be available in ebook in the UK.

Jenny Geras, Bookouture’s Managing Director, acquired UK and Commonwealth ebook and audio rights from Kerry D’Agostino at Curtis Brown US, acting for the Friedan Estate. The new edition will feature a new introduction by journalist Gaby Hinsliff. Its publication will coincide with the centenary of Betty Friedan’s birth this year.

The Feminine Mystique changed the world. First published in 1963, it sold nearly 3 million copies in its first three years in print. The publication is widely credited with the birth of the modern women’s movement.

Jenny said:

‘When I watched Mrs America last year, I went back to read The Feminine Mystique for the first time in over twenty years. I was astonished to discover both that it wasn’t available as an ebook in the UK, and how very relevant it still is to modern women. We would love to believe that our lives are entirely different to those of the women portrayed by Friedan in The Feminine Mystique. However, her observations remain so vital today. Even more so than ever in the wake of the pandemic and the disproportionate effect it has had on women’s working lives. It is truly an honour and a privilege to be publishing a new edition of this book to coincide with Friedan’s 100th birthday.’ 

Gaby said:

‘The definition of a classic is that each generation can discover something new in it. That’s why I was excited by the idea of introducing The Feminine Mystique to a new audience. It’s best known as the book that radicalised a generation of frustrated Fifties housewives. It encouraged them to demand more from life than marriage and motherhood. Furthermore, it inspiring a mass feminist movement in the process. But the deeper puzzle Friedan set out to solve was why women in the post-war years seemed to have taken a giant step backwards, just as the world should have been opening up for them.

How had women been somehow persuaded that all they really wanted was to be at home? Why had the first wave of feminism, which won women the vote, not only stalled but seemingly jolted into reverse? It’s at heart a cautionary tale about never taking hard-won progress for granted. It’s ripe for revisiting in an era where women are once again confronting toxic misogyny. Then as now, it’s a call to arms.’

The Feminine Mystique will be published by Thread in ebook and audio on 8 March 2021.

The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan

Published: 08 March 2021

Love and children and home are good but they are not the whole world, even if most of the words now written for women pretend they are. Why should women accept this picture of a half-life, instead of a share in the whole of human destiny?