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The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.^[3]

Background[link]

NOW was founded on June 30, 1966, in Washington, D.C., by 28 women and men attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women, the successor to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. It had been three years since the Commission reported findings of women being discriminated against. However, the 1966 Conference delegates were prohibited by the administration's rules for the conference from even passing resolutions recommending that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination.

The founders included Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), Rev. Pauli Murray, the first African-American female Episcopal priest, and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president of the United States of America. The movement spawned by Friedan's book is embodied in NOW, the National Organization for Women, which works to secure political, professional, and educational equality for women. Founded in 1966 with Betty Friedan acting as an organizer, NOW is a public voice for equal rights for women. It has been extremely effective in enacting rhetorical strategies that have brought about concrete changes in laws and policies that enlarge women's opportunities and protect their rights.^[4]

During the 1970s feminist leaders promoted the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After Congress approved the amendment in 1972, it was quickly ratified by 28 states, and its passage seemed assured. However, a Stop ERA campaign, led by Phyllis Schlafly, crushed the progress of the legislation. By 1973, of the needed 38 states, 35 had ratified the amendment, but no remaining state would ratify the ERA.^[5]

The organization remains active in lobbying legislatures and media outlets on feminist issues.

Statement of purpose[link]

Betty Friedan and Pauli Murray wrote the organization's Statement of Purpose^[6] in 1966 (the original was scribbled on a napkin by Friedan). The statement described the purpose of NOW as "To take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."

The current membership brochure paraphrases and expands upon the above excerpt to read: "Our purpose is to take action to bring women into full participation in society—sharing equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities with men, while living free from discrimination." This brochure also states: "NOW is one of the few multi-issue progressive organizations in the United States. NOW stands against all oppression, recognizing that racism, sexism and homophobia are interrelated, that other forms of oppression such as classism and ableism work together with these three to keep power and privilege concentrated in the hands of a few."^[7]

NOW's Top Six Priority Issues[link]

The six core issues that NOW addresses are abortion rights/reproductive issues, violence against women, constitutional equality, promoting diversity/ending racism, lesbian rights, and economic justice.^[8]

Additional Issues[link]

NOW also works on the issues of affirmative action, disability rights, family law, global feminism, health and body image, immigration, judicial nominations, same-sex marriage, media activism, mothers/caregivers economic rights, Title IX/education, welfare, promoting women-friendly workplaces, women in the military, young feminist programs and more.^[9]

Justice for immigrant women: NOW supports "real 'immigration reform' legislation that provides a path to citizenship, promotes the reunification of families, includes protections against exploitation in the workplace, and doesn't include fences, walls or border prisons."^[10] The organization opposes Arizona's effort to discourage illegal immigration through SB 1070, and claims that "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arapaio has been terrorizing [undocumented immigrants] by profiling, arresting and deporting the undocumented." NOW calls SB 1070 "cruel and unconstitutional" and officially supports the lawsuit filed against Arizona by the ACLU.^[11]

Global issues: According to NOW's bylaws, NOW's primary focus is on domestic American issues; however, NOW does some work on other issues of importance to women and children globally. These issues include genocide in Africa. NOW is also a coalition member with other feminist groups whose mission is global feminism.^[12]

Structure and chapters[link]

The membership, meeting yearly in conference, is the supreme governing body of NOW. NOW draws its broad grassroots strength from a nationwide network of local chapters, which are chartered by national NOW and which engage in a wide variety of action programs in their communities.^[13][14] There are also various state organizations, which serve to develop and provide resources to local chapters, as well as coordinate statewide activities.

The national level of the organization is led by four elected national officers, by the national Board of Directors, and by national issues committees. These national leaders are responsible for implementing policy as formulated by the annual National Conference, for coordinating national actions, and for providing membership services.^[15] NOW has had ten national presidents, beginning with Betty Friedan in 1966. Terry O'Neill, the currently serving national president, was elected in 2009.

Presidents[link]

The following women have led the National Organization for Women;

1. Betty Friedan (1966–1970)
2. Aileen Hernandez (1970–1971)
3. Wilma Scott Heide (1971–1974)
4. Karen DeCrow (1974–1977)
5. Eleanor Smeal (1977–1982)
6. Judy Goldsmith (1982–1985)
7. Eleanor Smeal (1985–1987)
8. Molly Yard (1987–1991)
9. Patricia Ireland (1991–2001)
10. Kim Gandy (2001–2009)
11. Terry O'Neill (2009– )

Alumnae and alumni[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Among past leaders and notables at various organizational levels of NOW are Ti-Grace Atkinson, Ernesta Drinker Ballard, Rita Mae Brown, Shirley Chisholm, Kathryn F. Clarenbach, Mary Daly, Warren Farrell, Caroline Davis, Karen DeCrow, Rosemary Dempsey, Betty Friedan, Sonia Pressman Fuentes, Kim Gandy, Judy Goldsmith, Wilma Scott Heide, Aileen Hernandez, Shere Hite, Phineas Indritz, Patricia Ireland, Florynce "Flo" Kennedy, Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, Kate Millett, Virginia "Ginny" Montes, Pauli Murray, Irma Newmark, Sylvia Roberts, Barbara Seaman, Eleanor Smeal, Jean Witter, and Molly Yard. Some were Presidents; some served in other capacities. In addition, NOW has given awards to women recognizing work outside of NOW and many others, who may be well-known elsewhere, have been members and contributors.

Third-party explorations[link]

In Cincinnati, Ohio, at its 1989 convention on July 23, NOW delegates questioned the merits of the two-party system and broached the idea of forming a third party.

The same convention issued a "Declaration of Women's Political Independence." An exploratory commission was formed for the possibilities of amending the United States Constitution to include freedom from sexual discrimination, the right to a decent standard of living, the right to clean air, clean water and environmental protections, and the right to be free from violence.

The commission was chaired by former NOW president Eleanor Smeal. A month earlier, NOW launched a Commission for Responsive Democracy, which included Smeal, John Anderson, Toney Anaya, Barry Commoner, and Dee Berry.

ERA and CEA[link]

Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex," remains a priority for the organization, as stated in their platform. During their 1995 conference, NOW also wrote and adopted their own constitutional amendment that would cover all of NOW's programs of reform, including abortion, lesbian and gay rights, affirmative action, etc., and labeled it the Constitutional Equality Amendment.

Although NOW has given moral support to attempts to ratify the ERA, they also continue to support the CEA as part of their official platform.

The Constitutional Equality Amendment, which has not been introduced into any session of Congress, reads;

1. Women and men shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place and entity subject to its jurisdiction; through this article, the subordination of women to men is abolished;
2. All persons shall have equal rights and privileges without discrimination on account of sex, race, sexual orientation, marital status, ethnicity, national origin, color or indigence;
3. This article prohibits pregnancy discrimination and guarantees the absolute right of a woman to make her own reproductive decisions including the termination of pregnancy;
4. This article prohibits discrimination based upon characteristics unique to or stereotypes about any class protected under this article. This article also prohibits discrimination through the use of any facially neutral criteria which have a disparate impact based on membership in a class protected under this article.
5. This article does not preclude any law, program or activity that would remedy the effects of discrimination and that is closely related to achieving such remedial purposes;
6. This article shall be interpreted under the highest standard of judicial review;
7. The United States and the several states shall guarantee the implementation and enforcement of this article.

See also[link]

• Feminism
• List of Presidents of the National Organization for Women
• List of Woman of Courage Award Winners

References[link]

External links[link]

• National Organization for Women, Official website
• National Organization for Women Records.
• Additional Records of the National Organization for Women, 1970-2011. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

The Feminine Mystique is a nonfiction book by Betty Friedan first published in 1963. It is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States.^[2]

In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. She originally intended to publish an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish her article.^[3][4]

Synopsis[link]

The Feminine Mystique begins with an introduction describing what Friedan called "the problem that has no name"—the widespread unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. It discusses the lives of several housewives from around the United States who were unhappy despite living in material comfort and being happily married with fine children.^[5]

Chapter 1: Friedan points out that the average age of marriage was dropping and the birthrate was increasing for women throughout the 1950s, yet the widespread unhappiness of women persisted, although American culture insisted that fulfillment for women could be found in marriage and housewifery; this chapter concludes by declaring "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'"^[6]

Chapter 2: Friedan shows that the editorial decisions concerning women's magazines were being made mostly by men, who insisted on stories and articles that showed women as either happy housewives or unhappy, neurotic careerists, thus creating the "feminine mystique"—the idea that women were naturally fulfilled by devoting their lives to being housewives and mothers. Friedan notes that this is in contrast to the 1930s, at which time women's magazines often featured confident and independent heroines, many of whom were involved in careers.^[7]

Chapter 3: Friedan recalls her own decision to conform to society's expectations by giving up her promising career in psychology to raise children, and shows that other young women still struggled with the same kind of decision. Many women dropped out of school early to marry, afraid that if they waited too long or became too educated, they would not be able to attract a husband.^[8]

Chapter 4: Friedan discusses early American feminists and how they fought against the assumption that the proper role of a woman was to be solely a wife and mother. She notes that they secured important rights for women, including education, the right to pursue a career, and the right to vote.^[9]

Chapter 5: Friedan, who had a degree in psychology, criticizes Sigmund Freud (whose ideas were very influential in America at the time of her book's publication). She notes that Freud saw women as childlike and as destined to be housewives, once pointing out that Freud wrote, "I believe that all reforming action in law and education would break down in front of the fact that, long before the age at which a man can earn a position in society, Nature has determined woman’s destiny through beauty, charm, and sweetness. Law and custom have much to give women that has been withheld from them, but the position of women will surely be what it is: in youth an adored darling and in mature years a loved wife." Friedan also points out that Freud's unproven concept of "penis envy" had been used to label women who wanted careers as neurotic, and that the popularity of Freud's work and ideas elevated the "feminine mystique" of female fulfillment in housewifery into a "scientific religion" that most women were not educated enough to criticize.^[10]

Chapter 6: Friedan criticizes functionalism, which attempted to make the social sciences more credible by studying the institutions of society as if they were parts of a social body, as in biology. Institutions were studied in terms of their function in society, and women were confined to their sexual biological roles as housewives and mothers and told that doing otherwise would upset the social balance. Friedan points out that this is unproven and that Margaret Mead, a prominent functionalist, had a flourishing career as an anthropologist.^[9]

Chapter 7: Friedan discusses the change in women's education from the 1940s to the early 1960s, in which many women's schools concentrated on non-challenging classes that focused mostly on marriage, family, and other subjects deemed suitable for women, as educators influenced by functionalism felt that too much education would spoil women's femininity and capacity for sexual fulfillment. Friedan says that this change in education arrested girls in their emotional development at a young age, because they never had to face the painful identity crisis and subsequent maturation that comes from dealing with many adult challenges.^[9]

Chapter 8: Friedan notes that the uncertainties and fears during World War II and the Cold War made Americans long for the comfort of home, so they tried to create an idealized home life with father as the breadwinner and mother as the housewife.^[11] Friedan notes that this was helped along by the fact that many of the women who worked during the war filling jobs previously filled by men faced dismissal, discrimination, or hostility when the men returned, and that educators blamed over-educated, career-focused mothers for the maladjustment of soldiers in World War II. Yet as Friedan shows, later studies found that overbearing mothers, not careerists, were the ones who raised maladjusted children.^[9]

Chapter 9: Friedan shows that advertisers tried to encourage housewives to think of themselves as professionals who needed many specialized products in order to do their jobs, while discouraging housewives from having actual careers, since that would mean they would not spend as much time and effort on housework and therefore would not buy as many household products, cutting into advertisers' profits.^[9]

Chapter 10: Friedan interviews several full-time housewives, finding that although they are not fulfilled by their housework, they are all extremely busy with it. She postulates that these women unconsciously stretch their home duties to fill the time available, because the feminine mystique has taught women that this is their role, and if they ever complete their tasks they will become unneeded.^[9]

Chapter 11: Friedan notes that many housewives have sought fulfillment in sex, unable to find it in housework and children; Friedan notes that sex cannot fulfill all of a person's needs, and that attempts to make it do so often drive married women to have affairs or drive their husbands away as they become obsessed with sex.^[9]

Chapter 12: Friedan discusses the fact that many children have lost interest in life or emotional growth, attributing the change to the mother's own lack of fulfillment, a side effect of the feminine mystique. When the mother lacks a self, Friedan notes, she often tries to live through her children, causing the children to lose their own sense of themselves as separate human beings with their own lives.^[9]

Chapter 13: Friedan discusses Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and notes that women have been trapped at the basic, physiological level, expected to find their identity through their sexual role alone. Friedan says that women need meaningful work just as men do to achieve self-actualization, the highest level on the hierarchy of needs.^[9]

Chapter 14: In the final chapter of The Feminine Mystique, Friedan discusses several case studies of women who have begun to go against the feminine mystique. She also advocates a new life plan for her women readers, including not viewing housework as a career, not trying to find total fulfillment through marriage and motherhood alone, and finding meaningful work that uses their full mental capacity. She discusses the conflicts that some women may face in this journey to self-actualization, including their own fears and resistance from others. For each conflict, Friedan offers examples of women who have overcome it. Friedan ends her book by promoting education and meaningful work as the ultimate method by which American women can avoid becoming trapped in the feminine mystique, calling for a drastic rethinking of what it means to be feminine, and offering several educational and occupational suggestions.^[9]

Impact[link]

The Feminine Mystique is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century, and is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. Futurist Alvin Toffler declared that it "pulled the trigger on history."^[2] Friedan received hundreds of letters from unhappy housewives after its publication, and she herself went on to help found the National Organization for Women, an influential feminist organization.^[12]

By the year 2000, The Feminine Mystique had sold more than 3 million copies and had been translated into many foreign languages.^[2]

Criticism[link]

Historian Daniel Horowitz points out that although Friedan presented herself as a typical suburban housewife, she was involved with radical politics and labor journalism in her youth, and during the time she wrote The Feminine Mystique she worked as a freelance journalist for women's magazines and as a community organizer.^[13][14]

Historian Joanne Meyerowitz argues that many of the contemporary magazines and articles of the period did not place women solely in the home, as Friedan stated, but in fact supported the notions of full- or part-time jobs for women seeking to follow a career path rather than being a housewife.^[15] After interviewing 188 women who read the book when it was first published, historian Stephanie Coontz concludes that the mixed messages of the era were "especially paralyzing" for many women.^[16]

In addition, Friedan has been criticized for focusing solely on the plight of middle-class white women, and not giving enough attention to the differing situations encountered by women in less stable economic situations, or women of other races. She has also been criticized for prejudice against homosexuality, although such prejudice was extremely common when The Feminine Mystique was written.^[17][18]

Adaptations[link]

In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of The Feminine Mystique, narrated by Parker Posey, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.

See also[link]

• History of feminism
• Joy Picus, Los Angeles, California, City Council member, 1977–91; Ms. magazine Woman of the Year, influenced by The Feminine Mystique

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Stephanie Coontz. A Strange Stirring: "The Feminine Mystique" and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (Basic Books; 2011) 222 pages
• Joanne Meyerowitz. "The Myth of the Feminine Mystique". In Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1-881089-97-5

External links[link]

• C-SPAN American Writers profile on the book.
• This Week in History - Publication of "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan
Friedan in 1960
Born	February 4, 1921 Peoria, Illinois
Died	February 4, 2006(2006-02-04) (aged 85) Washington, D.C.
Cause of death	Congestive heart failure
Nationality	United States of America
Known for	Reshaping the attitudes of Americans toward the lives and rights of women.

Betty Friedan (February 4, 1921 - February 4, 2006) was an American writer, activist, and feminist.

A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women, which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men".

In 1970, after stepping down as NOW's first president, Friedan organized the nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality on August 26, the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote. The national strike was successful beyond expectations in broadening the feminist movement; the march led by Friedan in New York City alone attracted over 50,000 women and men. In 1971, Friedan joined other leading feminists to establish the National Women's Political Caucus. Friedan was also a strong supporter of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution that passed the United States House of Representatives (by a vote of 354-24) and Senate (84-8) following intense pressure by women's groups led by NOW in the early 1970s. Following Congressional passage of the amendment Friedan advocated for ratification of the amendment in the states and supported other women's rights reforms. Friedan founded the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws but was later critical of the abortion-centered, politicized tactics of many liberal and radical feminists.

Regarded as an influential author and intellectual in the United States, Friedan remained active in politics and advocacy for the rest of her life, authoring six books. As early as the 1960s Friedan was critical of polarized and extreme factions of feminism that attacked groups such as men and homemakers. One of her later books, The Second Stage, critiqued what Friedan saw as the extremist excesses of some feminists who could be broadly classified as gender feminists.

Early life[link]

Friedan was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein^[1][2][3] on February 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois,^[4] to Harry and Miriam Goldstein. Harry owned a jewelry store in Peoria, and Miriam wrote for the society page of a newspaper when Friedan's father fell ill. Her mother's new life outside the home seemed much more gratifying.

As a young girl, Friedan was active in Marxist and Jewish circles; she later wrote how she felt isolated from the community at times, and felt her "passion against injustice...originated from my feelings of the injustice of anti-Semitism".^[5] She attended Peoria High School where she became involved in the school newspaper. When she was turned down for a column, she and six other friends launched a literary magazine called Tide. In this magazine, Friedan and her friends talked about home life as opposed to school life.

She attended the all-female Smith College in 1938. She won a scholarship prize in her first year for outstanding academic performance. In her second year, she became interested in poetry, and had many poems published in campus publications. In 1941, she became editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. The editorials became more political under her leadership, taking a strong anti-war stance and occasionally causing controversy.^[5] She graduated summa cum laude in 1942, majoring in psychology.

In 1943, she spent a year at the University of California, Berkeley having won a fellowship to undertake graduate work in psychology with Erik Erikson^[6] . She became more politically active, continuing to mix with Marxists (many of her friends were investigated by the FBI^[5]). Friedan claims in her memoirs that her boyfriend at the time pressured her into turning down a Ph.D fellowship for further study and abandoning her academic career.

Writing career[link]

Before 1963[link]

After leaving Berkeley, Friedan became a journalist for leftist and union publications. Between 1943-46 she wrote for The Federated Press and between 1946-52 she worked for the United Electrical Workers' UE News. One of her assignments was to report on the House Un-American Activities Committee.^[6]

Friedan was dismissed from the union newspaper UE News in 1952, because she was pregnant with her second child.^[7] After leaving UE News, she became a freelance writer, and wrote for various magazines, including Cosmopolitan.^[6]

[edit] The Feminine Mystique

For her 15th college reunion in 1957, Friedan conducted a survey of college graduates, focusing on their education, their subsequent experiences and satisfaction with their current lives. She started publishing articles about what she called "the problem that has no name," and got passionate responses from many housewives grateful that they were not alone in experiencing this problem.^{[citation needed]}

Friedan then decided to rework and expand this topic into a book, The Feminine Mystique. Published in 1963, it depicted the roles of women in industrial societies, especially the full-time homemaker role, which Friedan deemed stifling. Friedan speaks of her own 'terror' at being alone, and observes in her life never once seeing a positive female role-model who worked and also kept a family. She provides numerous accounts of housewives who feel similarly trapped. With her psychology background, Friedan offers a critique of Freud's penis envy theory, noting a lot of paradoxes in his work. And she attempts to offer some answers to women who wish to pursue an education.^{[citation needed]}

The "Problem That Has No Name" was described by Friedan in the beginning of the book:

"The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning [that is, a longing] that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — 'Is this all?"^{[cite this quote]}

Friedan noted that women are as capable as men to do any type of work or follow any career path, and the mass media, educators, and psychologists argued to the contrary.^[8] The restrictions of the 1950s, and the trapped, imprisoned, feeling of many women forced into these roles, spoke to American women who soon began attending consciousness-raising sessions and lobbying for the reform of oppressive laws and social views that restricted women.

The book became a bestseller, which many historians believe was the impetus for the "second wave" of the Women's Movement, and significantly shaped national and world events.^[9] .

Other works[link]

Friedan published six books. Her other books include The Second Stage, It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement, Beyond Gender, and The Fountain of Age. Her autobiography, Life so Far, was published in 2000.

She also wrote for magazines and a newspaper:

• Columns in McCall's magazine, 1971–1974^[10]
• Writings for The New York Times Magazine, Newsday, Harper's, Saturday Review, Mademoiselle, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle, TV Guide, and True Magazine^[11]

Activism in the women's movement[link]

National Organization for Women[link]

National Organization for Women (NOW) founder and president Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan (1921-2006); NOW co-chair and Washington, D.C., lobbyist Barbara Ireton (1932-1998); and feminist attorney Marguerite Rawalt (1895-1989). Rawalt was an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service, a former president of the Federal Bar Association, and a tireless advocate for women's rights

In 1966 Friedan founded, and became the first president of, the National Organization for Women.^[12] She, with Pauli Murray, the first black female Episcopal priest, wrote its mission statement.^[13] Friedan stepped down as president in 1969.^[14]

Under Friedan, NOW advocated fiercely for the legal equality of women and men. They lobbied for enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the first two major legislative victories of the movement, and forced the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop ignoring, and start treating with dignity and urgency, claims filed involving sex discrimination. They successfully campaigned for a 1967 Executive Order extending the same Affirmative Action granted to blacks to women and a 1968 EEOC decision ruling illegal sex-segregated help want ads, later upheld by the Supreme Court. NOW was vocal in support of the legalization of abortion, something that divided some feminists. Also divisive in the 1960s among women was the Equal Rights Amendment, which NOW fully endorsed; by the 1970s the women and labor unions opposed to ERA warmed up to it and began to fully support it. NOW also lobbied for national day-care.^[15]

In 1973, Friedan founded the First Women's Bank and Trust Company.

Women's Strike for Equality[link]

In 1970, NOW, with Friedan leading the cause, was instrumental in bringing down the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell, who had opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act which granted women and men workplace equality, to the Supreme Court. On August 26, 1970, the 50th anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution, Friedan organized the national Women's Strike for Equality, and led a march of 50,000 women in New York City.^[7][8][13]

Friedan spoke about the Strike for Equality:

"All kinds of women's groups all over the country will be using this week on August 26 particularly, to point out those areas in women's life which are still not addressed. For example, a question of equality before the law; we are interested in the equal rights amendment. The question of child care centers which are totally inadequate in the society, and which women require, if they are going to assume their rightful position in terms of helping in decisions of the society. The question of a women's right to control her own reproductive processes, that is, laws prohibiting abortion in the state or putting them into criminal statutes; I think that would be a statute that we would addressing ourselves to.

"So I think individual women will react differently; some will not cook that day, some will engage in dialog with their husband, some will be out at the rallies and demonstrations that will be taking place all over the country. Others will be writing things that will help them to define where they want to go. Some will be pressuring their Senators and their Congressmen to pass legislations that affect women. I don't think you can come up with any one point, women will be doing their own thing in their own way."^[16]

National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws[link]

Friedan founded the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, renamed National Abortion Rights Action League after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973.

Politics[link]

In 1970 Friedan led other feminists in derailing the nomination of Supreme Court nominee G. Harold Carswell whose record of racial discrimination and antifeminism made him unacceptable and unfit to sit on the highest court in the land to many in the civil rights and feminist movements. Friedan's impassioned testimony before the Senate helped sink Carswell's nomination.^[17]

In 1971 Friedan, along with many other leading women's movement leaders, including Gloria Steinem (with whom she had a legendary rivalry) founded the National Women's Political Caucus.^{[citation needed]}

In 1972, Friedan unsuccessfully ran as a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention in support of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. That year at the DNC Friedan played a very prominent role and addressed the convention, though she clashed with other women, notably Steinem, on what should be done there, and how.^[18]

Movement image and unity[link]

One of the most influential feminists of 20th century, Friedan opposed equating feminism with lesbianism. As early as 1964, very early in the movement, and only a year after the publication of The Feminine Mystique, Friedan appeared on television to address the fact the media was, at that point, trying to dismiss the movement as a joke and centering argument and debate around whether or not to wear bras and other issues considered ridiculous.^[19] In 1982, during the second wave, she wrote a book for the post-feminist 1980s called The Second Stage, about family life, premised on women having conquered social and legal obstacles.^[13][19][20]

She pushed the feminist movement to focus on economic issues, especially equality in employment and business and provision for child care and other means by which women and men could balance family and work. She tried to lessen the focus on abortion, as an issue already won, and rape and pornography, which she believed most women did not consider to be high priorities.^[21]

Related issues[link]

Lesbian politics[link]

When she grew up in Peoria, Ill., she knew one gay man. She said, "the whole idea of homosexuality made me profoundly uneasy."^[22] She later acknowledged that she had been very square and was uncomfortable about homosexuality. "The women's movement was not about sex, but about equal opportunity in jobs and all the rest of it. Yes, I suppose you have to say that freedom of sexual choice is part of that, but it shouldn't be the main issue ...."^[23] She ignored lesbians in the National Organization for Women (NOW) initially but objected to what she saw as demands for equal time.^[22] "'Homosexuality ... is not, in my opinion, what the women's movement is all about.'"^[24] While opposing all repression, she wrote, she refused to wear a purple armband or self-identify as a lesbian (although heterosexual) as an act of political solidarity, considering it not part of the mainstream issues of abortion and child care.^[25] In 1977, at the National Women's Conference, she seconded a lesbian rights resolution "which everyone thought I would oppose" in order to "preempt any debate" and move on to other issues she believed were more important and less divisive in the effort to add the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution.^[26] She accepted lesbian sexuality ("'Enjoy!'"), albeit not its politicization.^[27] In 1995, at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing, China, she found Chinese advice to taxi drivers that naked lesbians would be "cavorting" in their cars and so drivers should hang sheets and that lesbians would have AIDS and so drivers should have disinfectants to be "ridiculous", "incredibly stupid", and "insulting".^[28] In 1997, she wrote that "children ... will ideally come from mother and father."^[29] She wrote in 2000, "I'm more relaxed about the whole issue now[.]"^[30]

Abortion choice[link]

She supported the concept that abortion is a woman's choice, that it shouldn't be a crime or exclusively a doctor's choice, and helped form NARAL (now NARAL Pro-Choice America) at a time when Planned Parenthood wasn't yet supportive.^[31] Death threats against her speaking on abortion led to two events being canceled, although subsequently one of the host institutions, Loyola College, invited her back to speak on abortion and other issues and she spoke then.^[32] Her draft of NOW's first statement of purpose included an abortion plank but NOW didn't include it until the next year.^[33] In 1980, she believed abortion should be in the context of "'the choice to have children'", a formulation supported by the Roman Catholic priest organizing Catholic participation in the White House Conference on Families of that year,^[34] although perhaps not by the bishops above him.^[35] A resolution embodying the formulation passed at the conference by 460 to 114, whereas a resolution addressing abortion, ERA, and "'sexual preference'" passed by only 292–291 and that only after 50 anti-abortion advocates had walked out and so hadn't voted on it.^[36] She disagreed with a resolution that framed abortion in more feminist terms that was introduced in the Minneapolis regional conference of the same White House Conference on Families, believing it to be more polarizing, while the drafters apparently thought Friedan's formulation too conservative.^[37] As of 2000, she wrote, referring to "NOW and the other women's organizations" as seeming to be in a "time warp", "To my mind, there is far too much focus on abortion.... [I]n recent years I've gotten a little uneasy about the movement's narrow focus on abortion as if it were the single, all-important issue for women when it's not"^[38] She asked, "Why don't we join forces with all who have true reverence for life, including Catholics who oppose abortion, and fight for the choice to have children?"^[39]

Pornography[link]

She joined nearly 200 others in Feminists for Free Expression in opposing the Pornography Victims' Compensation Act. "'[T]o suppress free speech in the name of protecting women is dangerous and wrong,' says Friedan. 'Even some blue-jean ads are insulting and denigrating. I'm not adverse [sic] to a boycott but I don't think they should be suppressed.'"^[40]

War[link]

In 1968, Friedan signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.^[41]

Influence[link]

Friedan is credited for starting the contemporary feminist movement and writing a book that is one of the cornerstones of American feminism.^[42] Her activist work and her book The Feminine Mystique have been a critical influence to authors, educators, writers, anthropologists, journalists, activists, organizations, unions, and everyday women taking part in the feminist movement.^[43] Allan Wolf, in The Mystique of Betty Friedan writes: “She helped to change not only the thinking but the lives of many American women, but recent books throw into question the intellectual and personal sources of her work.”^[42] Although there have been some debates on Friedan’s work in The Feminine Mystique since its publication, there is no doubt that her work for equality for women was sincere and committed.

Judith Hennessee (Betty Friedan: Her Life) and Daniel Horowitz, a professor of American Studies at Smith College, have also written about Friedan. Horowitz explored Friedan’s engagement with the women's movement before she began to work on her book, The Feminine Mystique^[44] and argues that Friedan’s feminism did not start in the 1950s but rather before that in the 1940s.^[44] Focusing his study on Friedan’s ideas in feminism rather than on her personal life^[44] Horowitz’s book connects Friedan to the history of American feminism.^[44]

Justine Blau was also greatly influenced by Friedan. In Betty Friedan: Feminist Blau writes about the personal and professional life of Friedan through the feminist movement.^[45] Lisa Fredenksen Bohannon in Woman’s work: The story of Betty Friedan goes deep into Friedan’s personal life and writes about her relationship with her mother.^[46] Sandra Henry and Emily Taitz (Betty Friedan, Fighter for Woman’s Rights) and Susan Taylor Boyd (Betty Friedan: Voice of Woman’s Right, Advocates of Human Rights), wrote biographies on Friedan’s life and works. Journalist Janann Sheman wrote a book called Interviews with Betty Friedan containing interviews with Friedan for the New York Times, Working Women, and Playboy, among others. Focusing on interviews that relate to Friedan's views on men, women and the American Family Sheman traces Friedan's life and explores The Feminine Mystique.^[47] Betty Friedan has influenced many individuals into writing about her and topics about women's rights and equality.

Personality[link]

The New York Times obituary for Friedan noted that she was "famously abrasive" and that she could be "thin-skinned and imperious, subject to screaming fits of temperament." And in February 2006, shortly after Friedan's death, the feminist writer Germaine Greer published an article in The Guardian,^[48] in which she described Friedan as pompous and egotistic, somewhat demanding, and sometimes selfish, as evidenced by repeated incidents during a tour of Iran in 1972.^[49]

Betty Friedan "changed the course of human history almost single-handedly." Her ex-husband, Carl Friedan, believes this; Betty believed it too. This belief was the key to a good deal of Betty's behaviour; she would become breathless with outrage if she didn't get the deference she thought she deserved. Though her behaviour was often tiresome, I figured that she had a point. Women don't get the respect they deserve unless they are wielding male-shaped power; if they represent women they will be called "love" and expected to clear up after themselves. Betty wanted to change that forever.

— Germaine Greer, "The Betty I Knew," The Guardian (February 7, 2006)

Indeed, Carl Friedan had been quoted as saying "She changed the course of history almost singlehandedly. It took a driven, super aggressive, egocentric, almost lunatic dynamo to rock the world the way she did. Unfortunately, she was that same person at home, where that kind of conduct doesn't work. She simply never understood this."^[50]

Writer Camille Paglia, who had been denounced by Friedan in a Playboy interview, wrote a brief obituary for her in Entertainment Weekly:

Betty Friedan wasn't afraid to be called abrasive. She pursued her feminist principles with a flamboyant pugnacity that has become all too rare in these yuppified times. She hated girliness and bourgeois decorum and never lost her earthly ethnicity.

— Camille Paglia, December 29, 2006/January 5, 2007 double End of the Year issue,^{[citation needed]} section Farewell, pg. 94

The truth is that I've always been a bad-tempered bitch. Some people say that I have mellowed some. I don't know....

— Betty Friedan, Life So Far^[51]

Personal life[link]

She married Carl Friedan, a theatre producer, in 1947 while working at UE News. Friedan continued to work after marriage, first as a paid employee and, after 1952, as a freelance journalist. The couple divorced in May 1969. Friedan stated in her memoir Life So Far (2000) that Carl had beaten her during their marriage; friends such as Dolores Alexander recalled having to cover up black eyes from Carl's abuse in time for press conferences (Brownmiller 1999, p. 70). Carl Friedan denied abusing her in an interview with Time magazine shortly after the book was published, describing the claim as a "complete fabrication".^[52] She later said, on Good Morning America, "I almost wish I hadn't even written about it, because it's been sensationalized out of context. My husband was not a wife-beater, and I was no passive victim of a wife-beater. We fought a lot, and he was bigger than me." Carl Friedan died in December 2005.

The Friedans had three children: Emily, Daniel and Jonathan. One of their sons, Daniel Friedan, is a noted theoretical physicist.

Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2006, her 85th birthday.^[49]

Bibliography[link]

• The Feminine Mystique (1963)
• It Changed My Life (1976)
• The Second Stage (1981)
• The Fountain of Age (1993)
• Beyond Gender (1997)
• Life So Far (2000)

See also[link]

Biography portal

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Blau, Justine. Betty Friedan: Feminist (Women of Achievement), Paperback Edition, Chelsea House Publications 1990, ISBN 1-55546-653-2
• Bohannon, Lisa Frederikson. Women's Work: The Story of Betty Friedan, Hardcover Edition, Morgan Reynolds Publishing 2004, ISBN 1-931798-41-9
• Brownmiller, Susan. In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution The Dial Press 1999, ISBN 0-385-31486-8
• Friedan, Betty. Fountain of Age, Paperback Edition, Simon and Schuster 1994, ISBN 0-671-89853-1
• Friedan, Betty. It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement, Hardcover Edition, Random House Inc. 1978, ISBN 0-394-46398-6
• Friedan, Betty. Life So Far, Paperback Edition, Simon and Schuster 2000, ISBN 0-684-80789-0
• Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique, Hardcover Edition, W.W. Norton and Company Inc. 1963, ISBN 0-393-08436-1
• Friedan, Betty. The Second Stage, Paperback Edition, Abacus 1983, ASIN B000BGRCRC
• Horowitz, Daniel. "Rethinking Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique: Labor Union Radicalism and Feminism in Cold War America" American Quarterly, Volume 48, Number 1, March 1996, pp. 1–42
• Horowitz, Daniel. "Betty Friedan and the Making of "The Feminine Mystique", University of Massachusetts Press, 1998, ISBN 1-55849-168-6
• Hennessee, Judith. Betty Friedan: Her Life, Hardcover Edition, Random House 1999, ISBN 0-679-43203-5
• Henry, Sondra. Taitz, Emily. Betty Friedan: Fighter For Women's Rights, Hardcover Edition, Enslow Publishers 1990, ISBN 0-89490-292-X
• Meltzer, Milton. Betty Friedan: A Voice For Women's Rights, Hardcover Edition, Viking Press 1985, ISBN 0-670-80786-9
• Sherman, Janann. Interviews With Betty Friedan, Paperback Edition, University Press of Mississippi 2002, ISBN 1-57806-480-5
• Siegel, Deborah, Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 (ISBN 978-1-4039-8204-9)), chap. 3 (author Ph.D. & fellow, Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership).
• Taylor-Boyd, Susan. Betty Friedan: Voice For Women's Rights, Advocate of Human Rights, Hardcover Edition, Gareth Stevens Publishing 1990, ISBN 0-8368-0104-0

Obituaries[link]

• Betty Friedan, philosopher of modern-day feminism, dies - CNN, February 4, 2006.
• Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85 - The New York Times, February 5, 2006.
• Sullivan, Patricia (February 5, 2006). "Voice of Feminism's 'Second Wave'". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401385.html. Retrieved March 31, 2010. 
• Woo, Elaine (February 4, 2006). "Betty Friedan, Philosopher Of Modern-day Feminism, Dies". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-friedan5feb05,0,2296445.story. 
• Woo, Elaine (February 5, 2006). "Catalyst of Feminist Revolution". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-friedan5feb05,0,2472152.story. 
• Feeney, Mark (February 5, 2006). "Betty Friedan, feminist visionary, dies at 85". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/02/05/betty_friedan_feminist_visionary_dies_at_85/. 
• "Betty Friedan, 1921–2006". The Nation. February 9, 2006. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060227/pollitt. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Betty Friedan

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Betty Friedan

• National Women's Hall of Fame: Betty Friedan
• Betty Friedan at C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History
• Betty Friedan's Biography from The Encyclopaedia Judaica
• The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud (chapter 5 of The Feminine Mystique)
• Booknotes interview with Friedan on Fountain of Age, November 28, 1993.
• First Measured Century: Interview: Betty Friedan
• Betty Friedan: Late Bloomer.
• Find a Grave: Betty Friedan
• Cheerless Fantasies, A Corrective Catalogue of Errors in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
• Anything you can do, Icon do better — Germaine Greer remembers Betty Friedan
• After a Life of Telling It Like It Is: Betty Friedan Dies at Age 85, Lys Anzia, Moondance magazine Spring 2006
• "Betty Friedan". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13223958. Retrieved August 11, 2010. 
• Papers of Betty Friedan, 1933-1985: A Finding Aid.Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.