Betty Friedan

Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan (born February 4, 1921) is an American feminist, social activist and writer.

Related Topics:
February 4 - 1921 - Feminist - Activist - Writer

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Friedan was born in Peoria. While young, she was active in Marxist and Jewish radical circles. She attended Smith College, where she edited a campus newspaper and graduated with top honors in 1942.

Related Topics:
Peoria - Marxist - Jew - Smith College - 1942

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After graduation, she spent a year at the University of California, Berkeley, doing graduate work in psychology, but declined a scholarship for further study, and left Berkeley to work as a journalist for leftist and union publications. She married Carl Friedan in 1947, a marriage that would last 20 years and eventually dissolve amid mutual accusations of physical violence.

Related Topics:
University of California, Berkeley - Psychology - Scholarship - Leftist - Union - 1947

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In 1952, she was fired from UE News when she was pregnant with her second child. Many have been given the impressention that for the next decade, her life would shift to the role of full-time homemaker. In fact, she continued to be active as a radical writer and journalist, as documented by American academic Daniel Horowitz .

Related Topics:
1952 - UE News

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For her 15th college reunion, Friedan conducted a survey of Smith College graduates, which focused on their education, their subsequent experiences, and the satisfaction with their

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present lives. Her article on the survey, which lamented the lost potential of her classmates and present-day women college students, was submitted to women's magazines in 1958, but editors either rejected it or wanted it rewritten to a less feminist point of view. Refusing to recast her work, she withdrew the article and worked on expanding it into a book.

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That book, published in 1963, was The Feminine Mystique. It depicted the roles of women in industrial societies, and in particular the full-time homemaker role, which Friedan saw as stifling. The book became a feminist bestseller, and she was offered many academic positions. In the book, Friedan depicts herself as an ordinary homemaker, who wrote her book following growing frustration with her life. This should be viewed as a highly successful marketing strategy designed to appeal to middle class women, and not as an accurate description of Friedan's life.

Related Topics:
1963 - The Feminine Mystique - Industrial societies

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Friedan's other books include The Second Stage, which she wrote under a more objective position regarding sexism and has gotten some heat as a result, It Changed My Life, and recently The Fountain of Age.

Related Topics:
It Changed My Life - The Fountain of Age

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Friedan cofounded the U.S. National Organization for Women with Pauli Murray, the first African-American female Episcopal priest, and was its first president from 1966-70. She is counted as one of the most influential feminists of the late 20th century.

Related Topics:
National Organization for Women - Pauli Murray - Episcopal - 1966 - 70 - 20th century

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