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Contributions

1966: Co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW). NOW was dedicated to achieving equal opportunity for women.

1970: Led the 500,000 person Women's Strike for Equality in New York.

1971: Founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus; she was a leader of the campaign for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

1981: Wrote The Second Stage, which assessed the status of the women's movement.

1993: Wrote The Fountain of Age, which addressed the psychology of old age, seeking to counter the notion that aging means loss and depletion.

2000: Wrote her memoir, Life So Far.

One of the most recognized names and faces of the late 20th century, Friedan pushed for equal pay, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, maternity leave, child-care centers for working parents, legal abortion and many other topics considered radical in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Feminine Mystique

"The Feminine Mystique" spent six weeks on the Times best-seller list and the first paperback printing sold 1.4 million copies.

Friedan was the type of woman she wrote her book about. She was white and well educated; she had a financially dependable husband and a big house in a crime-free neighborhood; and she enjoyed the leisure to write, or do anything else she liked. The only expectations were that she manage the care of her healthy and well-adjusted children and be responsible for the domestic needs of her husband. Apart from the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, there were no laws against gender discrimination as such. The word “sexism,” in its current meaning, did not exist. The most brilliant thing about Friedan’s very brilliant book was her decision to call what was wrong with the lives of apparently comfortable and economically secure women “the problem that has no name”—and then to give it a name.

Betty Friedan's ground-breaking work The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963 after Friedan sent a questionnaire to other women in her 1942 Smith College graduating class. Friedan and her classmates all indicated a general dissatisfaction with their lives. This led Friedan to conduct more detailed research into "the problem that has no name"—the Feminine Mystique. She defined this "mystique" as the worthlessness women feel in roles that require them to be financially, intellectually and emotionally dependent upon their husbands. Through her findings, Friedan hypothesized that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children.

Early Life

Bettye Goldstein was born Feb. 4, 1921, in Peoria, Ill., the Jewish daughter of an immigrant jeweler and a mother who quit her job as an editor of the local newspaper's women's pages to become a homemaker. She skipped second grade and was a high school valedictorian, then moved 1,000 miles east to attend Smith College. She edited the college newspaper and graduated summa cum laude in 1942. Friedan got married to Carl Friedan in 1947 and had three children. She returned to work after her first child was born, but lost her job when she was pregnant with her second, according to The Christian Science Monitor. Friedan then stayed home to care for her family. But she was restless as a homemaker and began to wonder if other women felt the same way.

Quick Facts

Born: February 4, 1921

Died: February 4, 2006

Place of Birth: Peoria, Illinois

Known For: The Feminine Mystique

(1963)

Betty Friedan

"I never set out to write a book to change women's lives, to change history. Its like, 'who, me?' Yes, me. I did it. And I'm not that different from other women. ... Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was the truth of every woman."

-Betty Friedan

The Voice of Feminism's Second Wave

Works Cited

"American Writers: Betty Friedan." American Writers: Betty Friedan. National Cable Satellite Corporation, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/friedan.asp>.

"Betty Friedan Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/betty-friedan-9302633>.

Menand, Louis. "Books as Bombs." The New Yorker. Conde Nast, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/01/24/110124crbo_books_menand>.

Sullivan, Patricia. "Voice of Feminism's 'Second Wave'" Washington Post. The Washington Post, 05 Feb. 2006. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401385.html>.

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