The Women's Room by Marilyn French

[KettlePolly]

Probably preaching to the converted here but I just wondered if anyone else had read the book or seen the film (1970s film so hard to get hold of but you can buy it online for a few quid). It was famous for a while but haven't seen it mentioned in discussions in recent years, perhaps it's seen as "out of date"

I was obsessed with it in my teens back in the 80s and my mother borrowed it at one point and it made her cry because it was so close to home.

It's the story of a suburban housewife in the 1950s who makes friends with other mothers, who contend with infidelity, abortion, DV, behind closed doors, how powerless they are, and how she has a political awakening when she goes to university after divorce and finds fresh thinking from the new feminists. It's terrifically powerful.

If you haven't happened to come across it I urge you to read it. A slice of history and many reminders of the insidious - and blatant power of the patriarchy.

Yes i've read it, but then i have an awesome local library. Very astute, i thought.

One of the first feminist novels I read! I still have my hardback edition from 1978 - I bought it when I was a medical student. Harrowing and enraging in equal measure.

I read it as a teen, and thought that won’t be me, worlds moved on.
Reread it a few years ago as a post divorce single parent and thought you deluded teenager.

It’s an incredible book.

I have my original battered copy.

Yes, I read it in the late eighties, I was 19 and like a pp thought it was powerful but from a time past, after having a child and a long relationship it doesn’t seem quite the different era I’d assumed back then.

I wonder if I still have my copy somewhere.

This book did more than any other at the time to get women to start to re-evaluate their life or future life as a married woman.

The media liked to push books like Fear of Flying or Kate Millet, but as someone volunteering at a women's information service it was clear that this book had a huge impact / made a connection.

I wonder if younger women, thinking they are part of the choice generation, would have the same reaction.

I dont remember it clear, but do remember the feeling it gave me, a mixture of anger and despair.

I read it in the early 80s, I've just bought and downloaded a copy onto my kindle. It's a very thought provoking novel and I'm looking forward to reading it again.

Yes - interesting re choices - the women in the book think they have choices, feel empowered as young modern wives with money and generous husbands but when the shit hits the fan they're all trapped.

We have talked about choice re sex work and surrogacy and other feminist issues and so it's a theme that's current. Freedom to make choices always sits in systems far more complex than we realise.

I really liked the TV movie of it - pretty faithful adaptation. I have it somewhere on a battered VHS not that I could watch that now! I found it on an online download site once but can't seem to find it again now.

My mother gave it to me along with The Female Eunuch and all of Doris Lessing when I was a teen in the late 70s. Loved them all and tried to live by their concepts.

I also loved Marge Piercy

Interesting you mention the Female Eunuch - I watched a video of Germaine Greer recently where she said she wishes she hadn't made it so literary but I thought it was powerful too at the time. I recall she memorably refered to "cross-dressers" as pantomime dames. She still doesn't give a toss what people think does she

Yes, a very powerful book. I can imagine how ground-breaking it must have been at the time. Reading it before children, I saw the things that clearly have changed for the good for many women because of feminism. Reading it after children and divorce, I cried because so much rang true and still rings true .

Read it in the 70s as a teenager. I found it a bit hard to relate to as 50s suburban America seemed very remote culturally from working class England. I must have absorbed the message to not rely on a man for money, as I never have.

ooo! I have a version of this old film on a download - I'll see if I can find a private way to share the link.

I read it a few years ago, I think it was probably recommended by someone on here! I also found it very powerful and eye-opening.

I have a terrible memory for books at the moment (my short-term memory is good, luckily as I usually have about a million daft things I need to remember, but I find things that happened a while back, or books I read, even if I liked them a lot, often don't seem to stick in my memory as well as they used to - maybe due to lack of sleep?!), but found some parts of it in particular stuck with me strongly, and I remember the emotions of reading it too, much more than a lot of other books I read around the same time.

I read it about 35 years ago. Think I need to source a copy and read it again. And The Female Eunuch.

I loved the novel when I was 17, but was not so impressed with the writing when I dipped into it last year.

Rereading The Female Eunuch now and am still in love with that one.

Another formative feminist text I read as a teenager- Elaine Morgan's The Descent of Women.

Of Woman**

I loved this book and still have my old, battered copy around somewhere. After seeing this thread, I think it's due a re-read.

The rape scene is very graphic and absolutely harrowing.

It changed everything for me. It was left behind by a previous au pair on a bookshelf. I read it through the night, I was 20.

A friend's fabulous mother Len me this when I was around 13!
My young mind was blown, have never forgotten it.

Read it a couple of times a long time ago

Keep thinking i should reread it