Women's History Profile: Betty Friedan

The modern feminist movement in the past fifty years has had its own goals. After achieving suffrage in 1920, women had succeeded in a major way for the cause, but forty years later society still maintained prominent gender roles and treated men and women differently in the work field. Betty Friedan (February 4, 1921 - February 4, 2006) was an American writer and activist whose work inspired the goals and ideals of modern feminism.

The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan’s most famous and recognized book, was published in 1963 and explained Friedan’s findings that women, especially middle-class suburban house wives, were undergoing an identity crisis, losing themselves in the gender roles society expected them to fulfill and the overwhelming poweress of their family. By conforming to the female ideal and limiting the development of their intelligence and employment, women were stifled and imprisoned. The message of the book, and Friedan’s claim that women were just as capable as men in any career spoke to women and got them yearning for change. The strong response The Feminine Mystique received helped create a transformation in the attitude women had toward their rights.

After her book became a bestseller and women around the country pined for change, Betty Friedan co-founded the National Organization for Women, NOW, in 1966 and served as the first president of the organization. Under her leadership NOW fought against sexual discrimination in the work force and openly supported the legalization of abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. She stepped down in 1969 and began working on the Women’s Strike for Equality. This march, based out of New York City attracted tens of thousands of women. Pittsburgh became a part of the strike when four women participated threw eggs at a Pittsburgh radio station building. A DJ at the radio stationed had publicly dared women protestors to flaunt their liberation.

Once the strike ended, Friedan needed another project to work on and in the next five years founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, and the First Women’s Bank and Trust Company. After achieving success on the abortion front with Roe v. Wade, Friedan focused the rest of her life on creating economic equality, giving women opportunities to succeed in the work force and receive the same compensation of men.

Betty Friedan was largely inspired by her mother, a strong women in her own standing, who worked as a writer in addition to acting as mother to support her family. The satisfaction her mother received from having a life and job outside of her own family, Betty’s mother was an example of why an independent identity is crucial to the well being of women. Betty used this idea in her writing and advocacy, and consequently inspired a whole new generation of feminists to fight for their rights. By writing about what she saw, Friedan gave a voice to a group of women that had been quieted by severe inequalities in society. When others began to use their voices, it became a loud scream demanding women’s rights and equality.