The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan

Listen to this episode from Breaking Down Patriarchy on Spotify. Amy is joined by guest Marta Luna Wilde to discuss The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. Topics include womanhood in 50’s and 60’s America, housewife identity, Hegel’s dialectics, and the hierarchy of needs. Marta Luna Wilde is the youngest of nine children, born and raised (with 7 brothers and 1 sister) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her family immigrated from Central Mexico in 1962, her father having worked in the Bracero Program after World War II. In the 60s to early 1980s, her father worked as a cook at Stanford University which allowed her to play in and around campus throughout her childhood. She feels it was an amazing backyard in which to grow up. She received her BA from Stanford in 1987 and M.Ed from UCLA in 1990. Her professional career includes teaching in Los Angeles, Redwood City, and Palo Alto; serving as a program trainer with the Accelerated Schools Project (for disadvantaged schools) at Stanford’s School of Education, and working as a social science researcher developing curricula at the Prevention Research Center at Stanford’s School of Medicine. Currently, she is interested in finding ways to use her background in education to promote environmental education in schools, specifically with bilingual Spanish/English language learners. On a personal level, she and her husband have three daughters aged 13,13, and 21. Despite the pandemic, her family is thriving in a world turned upside down. Frequent Covid-safe visits with her 94-year-old mother help ground her and provide perspective on day-to-day living.