Frontline—The Academy, the APA, and the Women

The origins of the theme of this issue of the Journal, “Women and Society,” can be traced back to the impact on many of us of two books. Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex was published in France in 1948 and appeared here in translation in 1953. Challenging contemporary ideas on women's nature, de Beauvoir attacked the myth of female fulfillment through domestic drudgery. She was hardly the first person to write on the subordination of women, but she was the first to describe the dilemma of her contemporaries who possessed basic political rights at the same time that they were marginalized socially, culturally, and economically.

The second book that had a profound influence was The Feminine Mystique: by Betty Friedan, published in 1963. She wrote about housewives who had material comforts yet were miserable. Many of these women had dreams that were neither forgotten nor fulfilled. The book became a bestseller and resonated deeply with those of us who were treating these women, women who had hard-working husbands, healthy children, gracious homes, and blamed themselves for their unhappiness. They tried tranquillizers, sexual transgression, overinvestment in their children, volunteerism, labor-saving appliances and, eventually, psychotherapy.

These books (and a few others) were integrated into the life and work of female analysts and their patients. We began to respond. It was serendipitous that Alexandra Symonds and I were both profoundly affected by the ideas of these books, and experienced a need to discuss our ideas on the startling changes that were beginning to be made by the women's liberation movement.

As I read the literature about women, power, and leadership, I kept wishing that Symonds and I had been able to take advantage of all that we now know. We did what we did without being aware of any theoretical underpinnings.

Our first meeting occurred over 33 years ago. The American Academy of