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'Star Wars' Needs a New Approach to Gender—Not Just More Women
Science fiction has a history of asking big questions about the sexes. It's time for'Star Wars' to take some pointers from its genre.
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Chris O'Meara / AP Why the Word 'Panties' Is So Awful (And What to Do About It)
Can this simultaneously too-sexualized and too-babyish term finally be done away with?
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Why 'The Feminine Mystique' Is Still Worth Reading in 2013
Betty Friedan's book is a dated piece of literature—but at its core are lessons we're still learning today.
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Don't Rule Out Having Children Because You Want to Have a Career
New research suggests that more high-achieving young people are ruling out parenthood in favor of having careers.
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A Dress-Code Enforcer's Struggle for the Soul of the Middle-School Girl
Junior high is a weird, often heartbreaking time for young women—and it might be just as weird and heartbreaking for their teachers.
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What Betty Friedan Could Have Learned from Reading 'Agnes Grey'
The 1847 Anne Brontë novel can be read as both a critique of 'The Feminine Mystique' and an illustration of it.
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Unpaid Internships Are a Rich-Girl Problem—and Also a Real Problem
Certain types of unpaid internships can look like a problem only for the privileged—which makes it easier to ignore their real injustice.
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Take My Heart, and This Wooden Spoon: The World's Courtship Rituals
The timeless art of seduction can look vastly different from one culture to the next.
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The Skeptical Early Reviews of Betty Friedan's 'The Feminine Mystique'
"[Friedan] demands that all women find a life purpose or career which will give them an independent identity and what she calls fulfillment. In that, she surely goes too far."
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Stop That Skirt-Chaser! The Movement to Outlaw Flirting in the 1920s
"Too many motorists are taking advantage of the precedent established during the war by offering to take young lady pedestrians in their cars."
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Let's Not Panic Over Women With More Education Having Fewer Kids
It's not "reverse Darwinism" at work.
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4 Big Problems With The Feminine Mystique
There are several grains of salt that deserve consideration in any discussion of the 50-year-old book's legacy.
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Is It Okay for Parents to Lie to Their Kids? China's Parents Say Yes
Research suggests that more Chinese parents admit to lying to their kids than American parents—and Chinese parents tend to see less harm in it, too.
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I'm Not Proud, but I'm Not Alone: A Lazy Parent's Meditations
Many moms and dads have moments of falling woefully short of their lofty parenting goals. It's not ideal—but sometimes, it's okay.
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The 'Always' and 'Never' Life of Sylvia Plath
"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time," she wrote in 'The Bell Jar,' "then I'm neurotic as hell."
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'Side Effects' Rejects the Usual Sexism of Noir but Is Sexist in Its Own Way
Classics of the genre like "The Big Sleep" vilify women, while Steven Soderbergh's latest seems to think female characters are just not that important.
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When Talking About How Your Spouse Cheated on You Makes You Feel Worse
The benefits of a new, possibly bogus therapy called "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing"
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A Pop Star Shouldn't Shave Her Head in Shame for Having a Boyfriend
What Minami Minegishi's fall from grace says about gender relations in Japan.
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Mary Walker's Quest to be Appointed as a Union Doctor in the Civil War
Tale as old as time: Woman does "man's job" in the military, military resists giving her credit.
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Is Beyonce a Feminist? Some Answers to a Perplexing Question
Eight moments that seem to suggest she is
