Hardly anyone these days would dare seriously assert that a woman’s place is in the home. But even a more moderate formulation—to the effect that women who prefer being at home should not be discouraged or derided—will evoke debate, scorn or silence in many quarters. So Senior Editor Timothy Foote found when he brought up the subject of Marabel Morgan, whose immensely popular books and Total Woman classes preach just such ideas. When the mere mention of her name at a Long Island dinner party brought a hostile response from the women present, Foote as a journalist “found it a good sign. If people are so stirred by something that they are unable to talk about it calmly, you know there’s a story there.”
In order to write that story, Foote enlisted the help of TIME’s women correspondents throughout the U.S. They talked with dozens of housewives, career women, theologians, psychiatrists, feminists and Total Woman advocates. Their assignment: to find out 1) what all these people think of Morgan’s ideas, and 2) whether Morgan’s widespread success does not point to certain problems faced by American women who may actually disagree with her specific ideas.
Many of the women assigned to the project had mixed emotions about Total Woman when they began. Chicago Correspondent Anne Constable, who talked with several TW teachers in the Midwest, “went into it feeling skeptical that TW worked and hostile toward people who would follow Morgan’s advice. I came away with a different attitude. I was struck by the need that TW is apparently filling for many women in America who want to keep their families intact.”
Although Reporter-Researcher Anne Hopkins discovered that Morgan’s books actually contain some “very basic and uncontroversial advice,” she still has many grave reservations, for example, “about the idea that a man should be the center of everything.” New York Correspondent Marion Knox, who traveled to Florida to interview Morgan and her family, agrees. “The problem with the concept of submission is that, while it may lead to a more peaceful union, it might easily lead to second-class citizenship for the wife.” But, adds Knox, “I would very much like to see a third book by Marabel Morgan that will explain the ways a woman can adroitly juggle both career and family demands. I’d buy it.”
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