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The second stage

Betty Friedan

1981272 pagesabout 4–6 hours
1981
first published
  • 1981Summit Books · 272 pages · ENG
  • 1981Summit Books · 344 pages · ENGISBN 9780671410346
  • 1982Joseph · 348 pages · ENGISBN 9780718121396
  • 1983Abacus · 346 pages · ENGISBN 9780349113326
  • 1986Summit Books · 366 pages · ENGISBN 9780671630645
  • 1991Dell Pub. · 357 pages · ENGISBN 9780440208433
  • 1998Harvard University Press · 357 pages · ENGISBN 9780674796553

Warning the women's movement against dissolving into factionalism, male-bashing, and preoccupation with sexual and identity politics rather than bottom-line political and economic inequalities, Friedan argues that once past the initial phases of describing and working against political and economic injustices, the women's movement should focus on working with men to remake private and public arrangements that work against full lives with children for women and men both. Friedan's agenda to preserve families is far more radical than it appears, for she argues that a truly equitable preservation of marriage and family may require a reorganization of many aspects of conventional middle-class life, from the greater use of flex time and job-sharing, to company-sponsored daycare, to new home designs to permit communal housekeeping and cooking arrangements.

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