The Women’s Room

The Women’s Room is the debut novel by American feminist author Marilyn French, published in 1977. It launched French as a major participant in the feminist movement and,[1] while French states it is not autobiographical, the book reflects many autobiographical elements.[2] For example, French, like the main character, Mira, was married and divorced, and then attended Harvard where she obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature.[2] Despite the connection of The Women’s Room to the feminist movement, French stated in a 1977 interview with The New York Times: “The Women’s Room is not about the women’s movement… but about women’s lives today.”[3]

The Women’s Room has been described as one of the most influential novels of the modern feminist movement.[4] Its instant popularity brought criticism from some well-known feminists that it was too pessimistic about women’s lives and anti-men.[5]

The Women’s Room is set in 1950s America and follows the fortunes of Mira Ward, a conventional and submissive young woman in a traditional marriage, and her gradual feminist awakening. The novel met stark media criticism when published but went on to be an international best seller.

The Women’s Room was published in 1977, but the novel is written as a reflective work, following the main character, Mira, from adolescence in the late 1940s to adulthood and independence in the 1960s.

Mira’s primary childbearing years were in the 1950s, during the Baby Boom. Though she had only two children, many of her friends throughout the novel had three or more.[6]

The 1950s was also a period in which American women were expected to be housewives, to prioritize their roles as wives and mothers before anything else, and to dutifully serve their families and find happiness inside their homes and marriages, rather than in a career.[7] Mira experiences this through her lack of a career during her marriage to Norm and her determination to have a perfect household.[citation needed]

Second-wave feminism emerged in the 1960s. This movement focused on a multitude of issues ranging from women gaining control over their sexuality to women having equality in the workplace.[8] In The Feminine Mystique (1963), Betty Friedan refers to one of those issues as “the problem that has no name”. The Women’s Room encompasses many ideas central to this movement, and Mira experiences much of the dissatisfaction common to housewives, discussed in The Feminine Mystique.[citation needed]