By the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
On Wednesday, March 13, Professor Stephanie Coontz will visit the University of Florida for a symposium, “The Feminine Mystique at 50,” focusing on her groundbreaking research into the history of family policy and women’s activism in America. She will be discussing her book, the highly acclaimed A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s in an afternoon roundtable discussion in Ustler Hall and a public lecture in the evening at Pugh Hall, “Madmen, Working Girls, and Desperate Housewives: Women, Men and Marriage in 1963 and 2013,” which will be followed by a reception and book signing.
The symposium will begin at UF on the afternoon of March 13 at 2:30 p.m., when Coontz will participate in a campus discussion focusing on A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawning of the 1960s in the Ustler Hall Atrium.
Later in the evening, Coontz will give a public presentation in the MacKay Auditorium at Pugh Hall at 6 p.m.: “Madmen, Working ‘Girls,’ and Desperate Housewives: Women, Men and Marriage in 1963 and 2013,” discussing her research into American family policy, women’s activism, and the history of marriage in the United States. This event will also include a reception and book signing. Parking is free.
The week before the event, on March 8 at 1 p.m., Coontz will be featured on WUFT 89.1’s weekly book program, “Conner Calling,” for a live, call-in discussion of her work. Contact the radio show at 352-392-8989 or e-mail fmcalling@wuft.org.
Stephanie Coontz teaches history and family studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and is Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families. She is the author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (Basic Books, 2011), the award-winning Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage (Viking Press, 2005), as well as The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (1992 and 2000, Basic Books) and The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing Families (Basic Books, 1997). Coontz has testified about her research before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families in Washington, D.C., and addressed audiences across America, Japan and Europe. She has contributed chapters to more than 25 academic books.
This symposium is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. It is co-sponsored by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, the Department of English, Philip Wegner, Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar Chair, the George A. Smathers Library, and the Journal of Family Issues.
For information about this event or the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, please call 352-392-7168, contact Tamarra Jenkins at tamjenk04@gmail.com and visit http://oral.history.ufl.edu/.