Bad ideas also have a funny way of seeping into our brains through the unlikeliest channels unbeknownst to us. These ideas then get handed down from generation to generation. I don’t have the time and probably not the stomach for it, but it would be very interesting to do a side-by-side comparison between Fascinating Womanhood and popular Christian women’s books published a decade or so later. If works are cited correctly, I’d know for sure, but my hypothesis is that there would be many similarities in content. 

A letter to the editor from a male mechanical engineering student at Eastern Washington University recently went viral. This letter was addressed to the women in his engineering classes and highlighted the subtle discrimination toward women in this field of study. One statement was of particular interested to me because my experience was more like that of this male student:

I did not, for example, grow up in a world that discouraged me from focusing on hard science.

I grew up in a Christian family with several female scientists including my mom. I studied chemical engineering and computer science in the 80’s when women were beginning to break into these previously male-dominated fields. I don’t recall any derogatory attitudes. The course material alone was sufficient to weed out students from the programs regardless of their gender. After grad school, my first manager and client contacts were women. So based on my limited observations, I don’t think discouraging girls from studying science comes primarily from academia or the professional world. I think the damper comes from a different source that may have had a wider influence than we realize. A damper like this:

Don’t Try to Excel Him: To preserve your femininity don’t compete with men in anything which requires masculine ability. For example, don’t try to outdo them in sports, lifting weights, running, or repairing equipment. Don’t compete with men for advancement on a job, higher pay, or greater honors. Don’t complete with them for scholastic honors in men’s subjects. It may be all right to win over a man in English or social sciences, but you’re in trouble if you compete with a man in math, chemistry, or science. Don’t appear to know more than a man does in world events, the space program, science, or industry. Don’t try to excel men in anything which has to do with masculine fields of endeavor.¹

This rather startling paragraph is from Fascinating Womanhood (FW) by the late Helen Andelin. She seems to have forgotten Shakespeare in her backhanded compliment to English majors and Marie Curie in her gender segregation of chemistry. But emotional appeal, not accuracy, is the point of this work. Andelin was inspired by a series of out-of-print booklets from the 1920’s on the ideal woman and wrote a nearly-400-page book on the subject. Interestingly FW and its polar opposite, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, were both published in 1963, which was perfect timing to sell an antidote for conservative America’s fear of feminism. This evidently struck a chord as more than 2 million copies were published, and its popularity was noted in a 1975 Time magazine article. There is also enough of a thin Christian-ish veneer and the occasional sprinkling of Bible verses to lead an evangelical reader into thinking this is a Christian book. But it’s not. Andelin was a Mormon, and therein lies the rub.

She tells her readers that a wife should give her husband the same freedom of choice that “God” gave to Adam. This choice, though it resulted in the Fall, was necessary for man to grow and develop, which is right in line with Mormon doctrine.² The Fall is considered a blessing, enabling procreation, giving “God’s” spirit children bodies and the chance to be mortal. After testing in this life, these mortals then return to heaven and rise to the ultimate goal of the Mormon religion: self-deification.³ But the Mormon perspective is most clearly seen when Andelin writes about Celestial Love, “what every woman has longed for since the world began.”⁴At face value, it sounds like an overblown description of marital bliss, but it’s not.  It’s the hoped-for destiny of every devout Mormon because you can’t get to “heaven” without marriage.⁵ Also a wife is dependent upon her husband to pull her to “the other side” after death. Then she will be united with Him in Celestial Marriage for eternity, bearing his spirit children who will eventually populate the planet over which her now-deified spouse has control.⁶

I could go into much more detail, but suffice it to say, the stakes are much higher in Andelin’s form of marriage. In fact, a woman’s eternal security rests on whether sheis married and can stay married. It’s no wonder there is an unhealthy and unbiblical veneration of the husband in FW, but after all, he is a god-in-the-making and the means of a woman’s salvation. Andelin also suggests an equal measure of underhanded manipulation so a wife can get what she wants, such as pouting and throwing a hissy fit. Gleaning the girls’ department for fashion ideas is also recommended in an effort to bring out that protective instinct in a man.⁷ I kid you not.

So is Fascinating Womanhood the reason why girls face an uphill battle in studying science? Maybe not directly, but I think its influence has spread within popular culture. Andelin managed to successfully codify Victorian gender stereotypes and package it with enough sentimentality and vague spirituality to sell it beyond the sphere of her religion. Well-meaning women who genuinely want happy marriages have bought into it, but it’s a bad deal. In her world, true happiness is found through a system of works – following detailed rules to transform yourself into a Fascinating Woman clone. In Christianity, true happiness is being justified before a holy God through the work and righteousness of Christ alone. Identity isn’t in being married or single, college or not, English or chemistry. It is found first and foremost in and through Jesus Christ.

Bad ideas also have a funny way of seeping into our brains through the unlikeliest channels unbeknownst to us. These ideas then get handed down from generation to generation. I don’t have the time and probably not the stomach for it, but it would be very interesting to do a side-by-side comparison between Fascinating Womanhood and popular Christian women’s books published a decade or so later.⁸ If works are cited correctly, I’d know for sure, but my hypothesis is that there would be many similarities in content. Given the wide reach of this book and a strong evangelical affinity for tradition, the errors in Andelin’s system could easily fly under the radar. While tradition may not be inherently wrong in itself, tradition is not always synonymous with being Christian.

By the way, my daughter is in college now, and guess what she is studying?

Science.

                                                                                                                          
1. Fascinating Womanhood, Helen Andelin, Bantam Books, 1992, pg. 276.
2. Ibid. 45.
3. The Fall, LDS Learning Center.
4. Andelin, pg. 12.
5. Celestial Marriage, LDS Learning Center.
6. The Role of Women in Mormonism, Jessica Longaker.
7. Andelin, pgs. 320-345.
8. That Mom: The sins of partiality and triviality and the curriculum that promotes them, Karen Campbell, July 21, 2011. This blog post makes connections betweenFascinating Womanhood and several women’s books.

Persis Lorenti is an ordinary Christian. You can find her at Tried With Fire and Out of the Ordinary. This article appeared at her blog and is used with permission.