Betty Friedan was an American writer, women’s rights activist, and feminist. She co-founded the National Organisation for Women (NOW).
Friedan was involved with the school newspaper while at Peoria High School, after her application to write her own column was turned down she and 6 friends launched a literary magazine called ‘Tide’. She graduated from the all-female Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1942. She won a scholarship prize in her first year for outstanding academic performance and had many poems published in campus publications. Friedan was also editor-in-chief of her college newspaper, under her leadership editorials were far more political, taking a strong anti-war stance which occasionally caused controversy.
Friedan received a fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley but only stayed there for a year. During her time there she became more politically active, mixing with Marxists (she had been active in Marxist and Jewish circles from childhood). She later claimed she had been dissuaded from continuing her academic career by a boyfriend at the time.
In 1947, after working for a short time as a reporter, Friedan married Carl Friedan and then had three children: Daniel; Jonathan and Emily. Friedan was unhappy as a homemaker and at her 15-year reunion at Smith College she surveyed her classmates to see if they felt the same. She spent five years researching history, psychology, sociology and economics, and conducting interviews with women across the country. This research became her book ‘The Feminine Mystique’ published in 1963, the book discussed American middle-class women’s metamorphosis from the independent, career-minded New Woman of the 1920’s and ‘30’s into the housewife of the postwar years who was supposed to find fulfilment in her duties as mother and wife.
The Feminine Mystique helped to ignite the women’s movement of the 1960’s and ’70’s, known as the second-wave of feminism. It is regarded as one of the most influential non-fiction books of the 20th century. The overwhelming response of readers who identified with the dissatisfied housewives in Friedan’s book led her to co-found the National Organisation for Women in 1966 to work towards increasing women’s rights. She also helped to found and lead other women’s groups like the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. Friedan was influential in helping change laws that disadvantaged women, like sex-segregated help-wanted ads and hiring practices, unequal pay, and firing a woman who was pregnant instead of providing her with maternity leave. She also fought for abortion rights, establishing the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America) in 1969.
Friedan was criticised for focusing on issues facing primarily white, middle-class, educated, heterosexual women and for working with men. Friedan was determined that the women’s movement had to be part of the mainstream or it would be dismissed. Her attitude provided a balance to other, more radical women’s rights leaders.
Friedan published The Second Stage in 1982 where she presented a more moderate feminist position and discussed the problem of the demands on women who seek work inside and outside of the home. Friedan is remembered as one of the leading voices of the women’s rights movement of the 20th century, her work continues through the organisations she helped to establish.