Helen Andelin

Vocation

American self-help writer and founder of the Fascinating Womanhood Movement. While at Brigham Young University, she met Aubrey Passey Andelin. They married and became the parents of eight children. Helen 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 and 1930s, "The Secrets of Fascinating Womanhood." Andelin's 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. Controversial among feminists for its advice toward women's fulfilling traditional marriage roles, her writings are still supported and re-discovered as recently as 2012, with classes still being taught on-line and in seminars. Andelin died on June 7, 2009 in Pierce City, Missouri. Link to Wikipedia biography