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Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement
In 1961, Helen Andelin, housewife and mother of eight, languished in a lackluster, twenty-year-old marriage. A religious woman, she fasted and prayed for help. As she studied a set of women's advice booklets from the 1920s, Andelin had an epiphany that not only changed her life but also affected the lives of millions of American women. She applied the principles from the booklets and found that her disinterested husband became loving and attentive. He bought her gifts and hurried home from work to be with her. Andelin took her new-found happiness as a sign that it was her religious duty to share these principles with other women. She began leading small discussion groups for women at her church. The results were dramatic. In 1963, at the urging of her followers, Andelin wrote and self-published Fascinating Womanhood. The book, which borrowed heavily from those 1920s advice booklets, the Bible, and classical literature, eventually sold over three million copies and launched a nationwide organization of classes and seminars led by thousands of volunteer teachers.
Countering second-wave feminists in the 1960s, Andelin preached family values and urged women not to have careers, but to become good wives, mothers, and homemakers instead. A woman's true happiness, taught Andelin, could only be realized if she admired, cared for, and obeyed her husband. As Andelin's notoriety grew, so did the backlash from her critics. Undeterred, she became a national celebrity, who was interviewed extensively and appeared in sold-out speaking engagements.
Andelin's message calling for the return to traditional roles appealed to many in a time of uncertainty and radical social change. This study provides an evenhanded and important look at a crucial, but often overlooked cross section of American women as they navigated their way through the turbulent decades following the post-war calm of the 1950s.
Countering second-wave feminists in the 1960s, Andelin preached family values and urged women not to have careers, but to become good wives, mothers, and homemakers instead. A woman's true happiness, taught Andelin, could only be realized if she admired, cared for, and obeyed her husband. As Andelin's notoriety grew, so did the backlash from her critics. Undeterred, she became a national celebrity, who was interviewed extensively and appeared in sold-out speaking engagements.
Andelin's message calling for the return to traditional roles appealed to many in a time of uncertainty and radical social change. This study provides an evenhanded and important look at a crucial, but often overlooked cross section of American women as they navigated their way through the turbulent decades following the post-war calm of the 1950s.
210 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 2014
5 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Julie Debra Neuffer
1 book3 followersJulie Neuffer earned her Ph.D. in American history from Washington State University in 2007. She currently teaches American history and religion at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. Her primary areas of expertise are 20th century American history, women’s history, and American Christianity.
She earned her Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and her Bachelor of Arts in History and Religion from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington
Neuffer has been teaching at the college level for over 15 years. Her history courses include: American history, American Popular Culture, Women’s History and Western Civilization. She has also taught religion courses in: American Church History, Christian Diversity, The History of Christian Spirituality, and The Rise of Christian Fundamentalism in America.
In addition to authoring Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement, Julie has often been invited to write reviews for other academic publications. To see a selection of her reviews click here. She is currently working on her second book.
A dynamic and popular speaker, Julie has presented papers and given lectures at over a dozen prestigious academic gatherings. Titles for some of her topics are: “In Search of the Perfect Woman: The Culture of the American Family During the Cold War Years,” “Visions of a New World: Women’s Leadership in New American Religions,” “Fascinating Womanhood: Politics and Religion in the ‘Other’ Women’s Movement,” and “The Power of Holy Women: Religion’s Influence in Women’s Social Reform Movements.” Most recently, she has been awarded the Mormon History Association’s Prize for Best Biography at the 50th Anniversary MHA meeting in Provo, Utah.
Julie Neuffer is involved in a variety of organizations focused on excellence in teaching, fostering student success, and ongoing professional development through lifelong learning.
She earned her Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and her Bachelor of Arts in History and Religion from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington
Neuffer has been teaching at the college level for over 15 years. Her history courses include: American history, American Popular Culture, Women’s History and Western Civilization. She has also taught religion courses in: American Church History, Christian Diversity, The History of Christian Spirituality, and The Rise of Christian Fundamentalism in America.
In addition to authoring Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement, Julie has often been invited to write reviews for other academic publications. To see a selection of her reviews click here. She is currently working on her second book.
A dynamic and popular speaker, Julie has presented papers and given lectures at over a dozen prestigious academic gatherings. Titles for some of her topics are: “In Search of the Perfect Woman: The Culture of the American Family During the Cold War Years,” “Visions of a New World: Women’s Leadership in New American Religions,” “Fascinating Womanhood: Politics and Religion in the ‘Other’ Women’s Movement,” and “The Power of Holy Women: Religion’s Influence in Women’s Social Reform Movements.” Most recently, she has been awarded the Mormon History Association’s Prize for Best Biography at the 50th Anniversary MHA meeting in Provo, Utah.
Julie Neuffer is involved in a variety of organizations focused on excellence in teaching, fostering student success, and ongoing professional development through lifelong learning.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 17, 2014
This is an engaging book about an under-examined aspect of feminism and the twentieth century women's rights movement. Helen Andelin seemed to be focused on the same problems as feminists like Betty Friedan, but she offered a radically different solution to women's dissatisfaction in a self-help book called "Fascinating Womanhood." Why did that book, comical to may present-day readers (but not universally so), attract hundreds of thousands of women?
According to Neuffer, Andelin was adept at taking the worst of Mormonism (vis a vis unquestioning obedience and rigidly-prescribed gender roles) and combining it with flippant "how-to-catch-a-man" advice from 1920s pop culture into a stew that appealed to the taste of dissatisfied wives around the United States and beyond. Almost every time an excerpt from the book appears I nearly laughed out loud.
Even so, Neuffer offers a sympathetic but not uncritical portrait of Andelin, the book she wrote, and the movement she fostered up until the late 1990s. This book reads more like a journalistic account than an analytic history. Neuffer's cultural analysis remains at surface-level, but it offers many intriguing questions for cultural and intellectual historians to pursue going forward. It's incredible how relevant the conversations being had in the 1960s still are—"Mommy wars" continue to rage online, in magazines, advice columns, and news outlets. As Neuffer describes in her concluding remarks, the ideas in Fascinating Womanhood remain culturally alive through present-day gurus like Dr. Phil and Laura Schlessinger.
If there was a 3-and-a-half star option I'd give it that because I think the analysis could have been a bit more in-depth. There's plenty of water left in this well.
According to Neuffer, Andelin was adept at taking the worst of Mormonism (vis a vis unquestioning obedience and rigidly-prescribed gender roles) and combining it with flippant "how-to-catch-a-man" advice from 1920s pop culture into a stew that appealed to the taste of dissatisfied wives around the United States and beyond. Almost every time an excerpt from the book appears I nearly laughed out loud.
Even so, Neuffer offers a sympathetic but not uncritical portrait of Andelin, the book she wrote, and the movement she fostered up until the late 1990s. This book reads more like a journalistic account than an analytic history. Neuffer's cultural analysis remains at surface-level, but it offers many intriguing questions for cultural and intellectual historians to pursue going forward. It's incredible how relevant the conversations being had in the 1960s still are—"Mommy wars" continue to rage online, in magazines, advice columns, and news outlets. As Neuffer describes in her concluding remarks, the ideas in Fascinating Womanhood remain culturally alive through present-day gurus like Dr. Phil and Laura Schlessinger.
If there was a 3-and-a-half star option I'd give it that because I think the analysis could have been a bit more in-depth. There's plenty of water left in this well.
March 13, 2019
Before she was a teacher and American historian, author Julie Neuffer was a PhD student in search of a thesis. One day during an American pop culture class, her university professor held up a book—a pink, petite, marriage manual. The teacher explained the book had been popular with women in the 60’s and 70’s, selling over three million copies to date. Julie Neuffer, raised in a devout Mormon community, recognized the book as Helen Andelin’s Fascinating Womanhood. As a strong believer in Andelin’s teachings on femininity and marriage, Julie’s mother had been a Fascinating Womanhood teacher, leading classes for community women and sharing the book with her daughters and friends.
At this, the student Julie Neuffer found her thesis, and the book Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement is the finished product of her equally fascinating and well-done research. From the beginning, Julie believed she could tell Helen’s story with understanding and objectiveness. Still alive at the time of her project, Helen Andelin served as the primary resource of invaluable interviews, letters, and documents. As an elderly widow now living alone, Helen was not always kind or cooperative. Julie’s kindhearted patience, highly evident in her writing, no doubt played a part in earning Helen’s trust. After getting off to a tumultuous start, the two were finally able to talk to each other. Julie tells Helen’s story with the compassion of a sister, upheld by the truth and true love of a historian.
Fascinating Womanhood was self-published by Andelin in 1963. Helen’s book, later shown to be plagiarized in parts, was a repackaged offering of the once-popular set of advice booklets from the 1920’s titled The Secrets of Fascinating Womanhood, or The Art of Attracting Men: A Practical Course of Lessons in the Underlying Principles by Which Women Attract Men—Leading to the Proposal and Culminating in Marriage. Besides significantly shortening the title, Helen Andelin tailored her book to be of use for married women. Marriage did not have to become the dead end of a man’s deep affection or a couple’s strong romance. By following the principles taught in Fascinating Womanhood, a woman could embrace her natural roles and femininity, and thereby re-invigorate a couple’s waning love.
Interestingly, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique was published the same year. The Feminine Mystique, famed for the creation of second-wave feminism, would also go on to sell three million copies. Helen, at the time, knew nothing of Friedan’s work, though as the years went on, she would become a strong opponent of the eventual “Women’s Movement”. Concerned about the rising divorce rates among Mormons, Helen and her husband made multiple failed attempts to get the LDS church on board with the work of Fascinating Womanhood, which by the mid 70’s had grown into a major business for the Andelins, as well as a widespread national grassroots movement. For over four decades, Helen received letters from women who credited Helen’s book with saving their marriages.
What remains to me most fascinating of all is how I’d never before heard of Helen Andelin or her book. Following her surge of popularity in the 70’s, Andelin retired from public life. Women continued to teach private classes through the eighties and nineties, and Fascinating Womanhood continues to be sold to this day. Following the reading of Neuffer’s book I have questions. Where are all the Fascinating Womanhood women today? Would they still now, decades later, endorse this material as the secret key to a lasting marriage? Are their marriages now, decades later, still happy? What, if anything, would they warn against with Helen’s teachings? At what point do the actual marriage vows mean something?
I can’t help but think there is more to these two women’s movements than the frequent definitions of “women rebelling against nature” on one end “desperately trying to earn a man’s love” on another. By the mid-twentieth century, the United States—men, women, middle-class families--had nowhere near begun to recover from the Great Depression and two world wars. One-hundred years following the canons, blood, and carnage, the wounds of the fatal Civil War were still raw. While Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement does not do much exploring into the cultural “why’s” of what made either Helen Andelin’s or Betty Friedan’s books so popular, it offers a simple and relevant insight.
“Andelin build a substantial and lasting following simply by addressing the immediate, felt needs of many women at a crucial moment in history when other reform movements did not.”
Could we not, even now, reject the wrongs of the women’s movements while finding wisdom in both?
At this, the student Julie Neuffer found her thesis, and the book Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement is the finished product of her equally fascinating and well-done research. From the beginning, Julie believed she could tell Helen’s story with understanding and objectiveness. Still alive at the time of her project, Helen Andelin served as the primary resource of invaluable interviews, letters, and documents. As an elderly widow now living alone, Helen was not always kind or cooperative. Julie’s kindhearted patience, highly evident in her writing, no doubt played a part in earning Helen’s trust. After getting off to a tumultuous start, the two were finally able to talk to each other. Julie tells Helen’s story with the compassion of a sister, upheld by the truth and true love of a historian.
Fascinating Womanhood was self-published by Andelin in 1963. Helen’s book, later shown to be plagiarized in parts, was a repackaged offering of the once-popular set of advice booklets from the 1920’s titled The Secrets of Fascinating Womanhood, or The Art of Attracting Men: A Practical Course of Lessons in the Underlying Principles by Which Women Attract Men—Leading to the Proposal and Culminating in Marriage. Besides significantly shortening the title, Helen Andelin tailored her book to be of use for married women. Marriage did not have to become the dead end of a man’s deep affection or a couple’s strong romance. By following the principles taught in Fascinating Womanhood, a woman could embrace her natural roles and femininity, and thereby re-invigorate a couple’s waning love.
Interestingly, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique was published the same year. The Feminine Mystique, famed for the creation of second-wave feminism, would also go on to sell three million copies. Helen, at the time, knew nothing of Friedan’s work, though as the years went on, she would become a strong opponent of the eventual “Women’s Movement”. Concerned about the rising divorce rates among Mormons, Helen and her husband made multiple failed attempts to get the LDS church on board with the work of Fascinating Womanhood, which by the mid 70’s had grown into a major business for the Andelins, as well as a widespread national grassroots movement. For over four decades, Helen received letters from women who credited Helen’s book with saving their marriages.
What remains to me most fascinating of all is how I’d never before heard of Helen Andelin or her book. Following her surge of popularity in the 70’s, Andelin retired from public life. Women continued to teach private classes through the eighties and nineties, and Fascinating Womanhood continues to be sold to this day. Following the reading of Neuffer’s book I have questions. Where are all the Fascinating Womanhood women today? Would they still now, decades later, endorse this material as the secret key to a lasting marriage? Are their marriages now, decades later, still happy? What, if anything, would they warn against with Helen’s teachings? At what point do the actual marriage vows mean something?
I can’t help but think there is more to these two women’s movements than the frequent definitions of “women rebelling against nature” on one end “desperately trying to earn a man’s love” on another. By the mid-twentieth century, the United States—men, women, middle-class families--had nowhere near begun to recover from the Great Depression and two world wars. One-hundred years following the canons, blood, and carnage, the wounds of the fatal Civil War were still raw. While Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement does not do much exploring into the cultural “why’s” of what made either Helen Andelin’s or Betty Friedan’s books so popular, it offers a simple and relevant insight.
“Andelin build a substantial and lasting following simply by addressing the immediate, felt needs of many women at a crucial moment in history when other reform movements did not.”
Could we not, even now, reject the wrongs of the women’s movements while finding wisdom in both?
January 9, 2022
This was a really interesting book as a very left leaning person to read. It’s interesting to see the other side of things in society but it also gave me a massive headache reading about how some women are so dead set on oppressing ourselves. Anyway it’s well written
October 2, 2019
A grimly fascinating bio of the woman who started the Fascinating Womanhood Movement with emphasis on the grim. This in no way endorses Andelin or the book that has led so many women astray.
Read
August 28, 2023Feminist history.
1960s nostalgia.
Relationships.
Dissertation.
I remember the FW movement. Crazy.
1960s nostalgia.
Relationships.
Dissertation.
I remember the FW movement. Crazy.
February 13, 2015
I am glad I read this story of Helen Andelin and her Fascinating Womanhood movement. The FW movement was one of those sociological reactions, almost like a rash in the skin of the populace, that the American people dealt with by their own means and without consulting a doctor. It was a fascinating and easy to read book, as it should be from the subject matter: the characters in this real story are exactly the fabric that make up the American People.
Helen Andelin all by herself set in motion a sort of revival of traditional and Bible-inspired principles and values, a way for the modern American woman to be happy with her husband and to save their marriage. It coincided with the apogee of the Feminist movement, a terrible opponent to contend with, but Andelin –we can safely say- succeded in the end. More than 50 years after setting in motion her plan to help married women all over the world, and after the world has gone through the orgy of the 60s and 70s up until now, the world seems to be finally conceding that she was right (or righter than her opponents). In America this knowledge is tacit: Ms Nueffer’s book and her difficulties to have it come to light are evicence to the tyranny of liberal political-correctness in American society. It is tacitly acknowledged that academic books are not to deal with ‘the other non-progressive’ side of society, unless it is to deride it. However, the increasing number and power of Muslims (the fear they inspire, which prevents the media from addressing any criticism to them like they would to to Christians), and the fact that –there’s no denying it- more and more women who can afford it are going back home and quitting their jobs, are all a belated testimony of Helen’s advice being much closer to the ‘right’ advice than her opponents. Feminists: tell your godless gospel to the Muslims, dare do it!
But Helen Andelin did win in the end, despite what we continue to get from the popular media. She –and not the feminists- did get to help and save thousands of marriages, which was the idea in the first place. She did get a spectacularly positive reaction from her readers and followers: her message worked. Of course, it only worked for those who took the trouble and tried out her recommendations without prejudice, Christian believers or not: good advice is good advice, no matter who takes it.
This is a sociological study but –exceptionally- an easy one to read. It's America from the grass-roots, America understood as ‘We the People’, not the America of the ruling-class. It’s a picture of America door-to-door. Nowhere but in America could one person –mind you, one person, an unimportant, non powerful, simple citizen- get a popular movement going like this one, spread her message throughout the country and rival the power of the Communist agents in America and their Hollywood accolytes. Bravo to Helen! Even, as the same author of this book says, that she does not agree with Helen’s philosophies (was she forced to write that uncalled for assertion?) but she respects her and her many admirers… yes, of course. What least could we do? Follow her or not, any unprejudiced person will come out admiring the struggle that Helen Andelin maintained with her opponents. If only other countries had the chance to fight struggles like this one!
Helen Andelin all by herself set in motion a sort of revival of traditional and Bible-inspired principles and values, a way for the modern American woman to be happy with her husband and to save their marriage. It coincided with the apogee of the Feminist movement, a terrible opponent to contend with, but Andelin –we can safely say- succeded in the end. More than 50 years after setting in motion her plan to help married women all over the world, and after the world has gone through the orgy of the 60s and 70s up until now, the world seems to be finally conceding that she was right (or righter than her opponents). In America this knowledge is tacit: Ms Nueffer’s book and her difficulties to have it come to light are evicence to the tyranny of liberal political-correctness in American society. It is tacitly acknowledged that academic books are not to deal with ‘the other non-progressive’ side of society, unless it is to deride it. However, the increasing number and power of Muslims (the fear they inspire, which prevents the media from addressing any criticism to them like they would to to Christians), and the fact that –there’s no denying it- more and more women who can afford it are going back home and quitting their jobs, are all a belated testimony of Helen’s advice being much closer to the ‘right’ advice than her opponents. Feminists: tell your godless gospel to the Muslims, dare do it!
But Helen Andelin did win in the end, despite what we continue to get from the popular media. She –and not the feminists- did get to help and save thousands of marriages, which was the idea in the first place. She did get a spectacularly positive reaction from her readers and followers: her message worked. Of course, it only worked for those who took the trouble and tried out her recommendations without prejudice, Christian believers or not: good advice is good advice, no matter who takes it.
This is a sociological study but –exceptionally- an easy one to read. It's America from the grass-roots, America understood as ‘We the People’, not the America of the ruling-class. It’s a picture of America door-to-door. Nowhere but in America could one person –mind you, one person, an unimportant, non powerful, simple citizen- get a popular movement going like this one, spread her message throughout the country and rival the power of the Communist agents in America and their Hollywood accolytes. Bravo to Helen! Even, as the same author of this book says, that she does not agree with Helen’s philosophies (was she forced to write that uncalled for assertion?) but she respects her and her many admirers… yes, of course. What least could we do? Follow her or not, any unprejudiced person will come out admiring the struggle that Helen Andelin maintained with her opponents. If only other countries had the chance to fight struggles like this one!
July 4, 2025
According to the introduction, this book is, or is based on her PhD Thesis.
It is a fascinating look at the simplistic (and often wrong) advice propagated by the author and subsequent imitators. Andelin created an empire with lots of spinoff products. In the 1970’s I was aware of this book and considered it to be a misguided book, best avoided.
Debra Neuffer interviewed Helen Andelin, a suspicious, isolated old woman. Over the course of several visits, Andelin, opened up and allowed access to her materials.
There are many spinoffs including books and organizations. It was fascinating to see how many advice books were mentioned as related to this movement.
Contents
Preface & Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. The ideal woman (from a man’s point of view
3. Everywoman’s heaven on earth
4. Heyday
5. Enemies
6. FarmVille
7. Afterword
Notes, Bibliography & Index
“She was smart, self-sacrificing, and dignified. She was also harshly judgmental. During her climb to the position of movement leader, and Andelin developed strong survival skills. Outwardly she was a confident woman; inwardly, she suffered painful insecurity.“ Page 6
“The Majority of the content of Andelin’s Fascinating Womanhood came from a set of advice booklets … publish in 1922. Andelin copied the booklets at length and used the same title for her own work. In addition to the information from the booklets, she incorporated biblical writings, personal revelation, testimonials from other women, advice from her husband, and tail and error to formulate a philosophy that would make her famous.” Page 7
“Andelin urged women to avoid heavy subjects, such as problems and feelings. … Andelin taught women not to talk too much because this was a sign of weak character and self-centeredness. And she encouraged smart women to dumb themselves down.“ Page 36
“And she became increasingly critical of women who would not or could not save their marriages.“ Page 46
“She promised that a woman who accepted her husband, the way he was, could transform him from “and apparently stupid, weak, lazy, cowardly, unrighteous man, into a determined, energetic, true, and noble one.““ Page 51
““Domestic goddess,“ a term and Allen borrowed from the character, Amelia and William Thackerays, 1917 novel, Vanity Fair…” Page 54
“ … not trained in any form of counseling, Aubrey (her husband) nonetheless dispensed advice about sex with confidence. His advice was naïve, confusing and often silly.“ Page 64
Chapter 5 Enemies
Although they have very different philosophies, Feminists and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints both came to be regarded as enemies.
Some references
https://bycommonconsent.com/2014/11/2...
https://sobrief.com/books/fascinating...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascina...
It is a fascinating look at the simplistic (and often wrong) advice propagated by the author and subsequent imitators. Andelin created an empire with lots of spinoff products. In the 1970’s I was aware of this book and considered it to be a misguided book, best avoided.
Debra Neuffer interviewed Helen Andelin, a suspicious, isolated old woman. Over the course of several visits, Andelin, opened up and allowed access to her materials.
There are many spinoffs including books and organizations. It was fascinating to see how many advice books were mentioned as related to this movement.
Contents
Preface & Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. The ideal woman (from a man’s point of view
3. Everywoman’s heaven on earth
4. Heyday
5. Enemies
6. FarmVille
7. Afterword
Notes, Bibliography & Index
“She was smart, self-sacrificing, and dignified. She was also harshly judgmental. During her climb to the position of movement leader, and Andelin developed strong survival skills. Outwardly she was a confident woman; inwardly, she suffered painful insecurity.“ Page 6
“The Majority of the content of Andelin’s Fascinating Womanhood came from a set of advice booklets … publish in 1922. Andelin copied the booklets at length and used the same title for her own work. In addition to the information from the booklets, she incorporated biblical writings, personal revelation, testimonials from other women, advice from her husband, and tail and error to formulate a philosophy that would make her famous.” Page 7
“Andelin urged women to avoid heavy subjects, such as problems and feelings. … Andelin taught women not to talk too much because this was a sign of weak character and self-centeredness. And she encouraged smart women to dumb themselves down.“ Page 36
“And she became increasingly critical of women who would not or could not save their marriages.“ Page 46
“She promised that a woman who accepted her husband, the way he was, could transform him from “and apparently stupid, weak, lazy, cowardly, unrighteous man, into a determined, energetic, true, and noble one.““ Page 51
““Domestic goddess,“ a term and Allen borrowed from the character, Amelia and William Thackerays, 1917 novel, Vanity Fair…” Page 54
“ … not trained in any form of counseling, Aubrey (her husband) nonetheless dispensed advice about sex with confidence. His advice was naïve, confusing and often silly.“ Page 64
Chapter 5 Enemies
Although they have very different philosophies, Feminists and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints both came to be regarded as enemies.
Some references
https://bycommonconsent.com/2014/11/2...
https://sobrief.com/books/fascinating...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascina...
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