A fiftieth anniversary edition of the trailblazing women's reference shares anecdotes and interviews that were originally collected in the early 1960s to inspire women to develop their intellectual capabilities and reclaim lives beyond period conventions

Introduction by Gail Collins -- Preface and acknowledgments -- Problem that has no name -- Happy housewife heroine -- Crisis in woman's identity -- Passionate journey -- Sexual solipsism of Sigmund Freud -- Functional freeze, the feminine protest, and Margaret Mead -- Sex-directed educators -- Mistaken choice -- Sexual sell -- Housewifery expands to fill the time available -- Sex-seekers -- Progressive dehumanization : the comfortable concentration camp -- Forfeited self -- A new life plan for women -- Epilogue -- Afterword by Anna Quindlen -- Thinking back and to the future -- Metamorphosis : two generations later -- Introduction to the tenth anniversary edition -- Notes -- Index