Neuffer’s biography gives an unprecedented view of a neglected topic in twentieth-century women’s history, gender studies, women’s studies, and Mormon studies. The movement sought to demarcate feminine roles and gifts rather than close the gender gap a woman’s “essential nature” (39) could bring love and order to a marriage. While growing up, I heard about Fascinating Womanhood ( FW) but did not realize the scope of the movement’s influence on millions of women in the twentieth century. Though she is sympathetic to Andelin, Neuffer’s portrayal is accurate, impartial, and unbiased. Neuffer reached this goal, for, having finished the book, I am still unsure if Neuffer is for or against Andelin’s philosophy. Helen Andelin and the movement she founded, within the larger historical context of women’s reform efforts” (4). This study provides an evenhanded and important look at a crucial, but often overlooked cross section of American women as they navigated their way through the turbulent decades following the post-war calm of the 1950s.In writing Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement, it was Julie Debra Neuffer’s hope that her study would “provide a scholarly and evenhanded look at the philosophy and motivations of. Undeterred, she became a national celebrity, who was interviewed extensively and appeared in sold-out speaking engagements.Īndelin’s message calling for the return to traditional roles appealed to many in a time of uncertainty and radical social change.
As Andelin’s notoriety grew, so did the backlash from her critics.
A woman’s true happiness, taught Andelin, could only be realized if she admired, cared for, and obeyed her husband. The book, which borrowed heavily from those 1920s advice booklets, the Bible, and classical literature, eventually sold over three million copies and launched a nationwide organization of classes and seminars led by thousands of volunteer teachers.Ĭountering second-wave feminists in the 1960s, Andelin preached family values and urged women not to have careers, but to become good wives, mothers, and homemakers instead. In 1963, at the urging of her followers, Andelin wrote and self-published Fascinating Womanhood. She began leading small discussion groups for women at her church. Andelin took her new-found happiness as a sign that it was her religious duty to share these principles with other women. He bought her gifts and hurried home from work to be with her.
She applied the principles from the booklets and found that her disinterested husband became loving and attentive. As she studied a set of women’s advice booklets from the 1920s, Andelin had an epiphany that not only changed her life but also affected the lives of millions of American women. A religious woman, she fasted and prayed for help. In 1961, Helen Andelin, housewife and mother of eight, languished in a lackluster, twenty-year-old marriage.
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