Children John Andelin Spouse Aubrey Andelin (m. 1942) | Name Helen Andelin Subject Feminine enchantment | |
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Born Helen Lucille BerryMay 22, 1920Mesa, Arizona ( 1920-05-22 ) Books Fascinating Womanhood, The Fascinating Girl, The secrets of winning men, All about raising children | ||
Helen Berry Andelin (May 22, 1920 – June 7, 2009) was the founder of the Fascinating Womanhood Movement, beginning with the women's marriage classes she taught in the early 1960s. Controversial among feminists for its advice toward women's fulfilling traditional marriage roles, her writings are still supported and re-discovered as recently as 2016, with classes still being taught on-line and in seminars.
Contents
Early life
The year 1920 saw the birth of daughter Helen to Dr. Herbert and Mrs. Anna May Berry of Mesa, Arizona. Helen was the youngest of seven children in this Latter-day Saint (LDS) household. In her teens, Helen worked in a malt shop and at her parents' hotel. She graduated from Phoenix Union High School and attended Brigham Young University, where she majored in Home Economics.
Love and marriage
At Brigham Young University, she met and married Aubrey Passey Andelin, son of Aubrey Olof and Gladys Passey Andelin. Aubrey graduated from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry and practiced dentistry in Central California for many years. Dr. and Mrs. Andelin became the parents of eight children, four sons and four daughters. One of her sons is well known marble sculptor John Andelin
Fascinating Womanhood
Helen Berry Andelin authored the book Fascinating Womanhood in 1963 to correspond with marriage enrichment classes that she taught in Central California. Mrs. Andelin sold 400,000 copies from her garage through a publishing firm she and her husband founded, Pacific Press. She based the classes and her book on a set of pamphlets that were published in the 1920s called, "Fascinating Womanhood." The classes started with an enrollment of eight women and grew to the point that many hundreds of women taught Fascinating Womanhood classes.
Fascinating Womanhood spawned a grassroots movement. Going against the "second wave" feminist tide of the 1960s and beyond, the classes and book focused on women being traditional wives and mothers. The classes continue to this day, being held in several countries, including the United States, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and the Philippines. The first online Fascinating Womanhood class was held in 2000-2001 by a woman from Kansas, Mrs. Franky. Additional online teachers have served over the years. Discussion groups exist on the Internet and in live venues.
Eventually being reissued in several editions, Fascinating Womanhood (also known as 'The Book the Feminists Love to Hate') has sold over four million copies and has been translated into Spanish, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Russian. Random House issued the latest edition of the book in February 2007. Mrs. Andelin hosted a website where she gave advice on marriage and motherhood.
Other books by Mrs. Andelin include The Fascinating Girl, a book addressed to single women, which was originally published in 1969 and remains in print in 2007, and All About Raising Children, published in 1980. Mrs. Andelin also designed The Domestic Goddess Planning Notebook to help women keep their busy lives organized.
Mrs. Andelin made many media appearances over the years. She has been interviewed by Michael Douglas, Larry King, Phil Donahue, Hugh Downs, and Barbara Walters. She appeared in the March 10, 1975, issue of Time magazine, in an article called "Total Fascination".
Controversy
Although many women perceive that Fascinating Womanhood helped their lives, the book's teachings remain controversial. The book emphasizes traditional femininity and a wife's conditional obedience to her husband. In addition, the book teaches women to embrace girlish appearance and mannerisms, which some feel is strange behavior for an adult woman. Certain conservative Christian groups reject the book's teachings based on disagreement with Mrs. Andelin's devout observance of her faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other conservative Christians who generally support Mrs. Andelin's teachings disagree with her ideas concerning sexuality in marriage and the behavior of wives. Finally, more than one author has indicated that Mrs. Andelin wrote her book in response to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. though that would have been impossible since Fascinating Womanhood took 4 years to write and came out the same year that Mrs. Friedan's book was published.
Later life
Mrs. Andelin entered the World Wide Web in 1998. Her website has now received over a quarter of a million visits. It appeared that the death of her husband in 1999 took a significant emotional toll on her, causing a conspicuous absence from interaction with the public. However, Mrs. Andelin returned to the world of Fascinating Womanhood about a year later, convinced of the necessity of her message. In 2006, the Helen B. Andelin Papers were donated to the University of Utah, where they remain housed in the Marriott Library Special Collections. Fascinating Womanhood is now lead by Helen Andelin's daughter, Dixie Andelin Forsyth.
Mrs. Andelin died at her daughter Virginia Leavitt's home on June 7, 2009, in Pierce City, Missouri. She was survived by 8 children.