View source for Betty Friedan

{{Short description|American feminist writer and activist (1921–2006)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Redirect|Friedan|her son, the theoretical physicist|Daniel Friedan}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Betty Friedan
| image              = Betty Friedan 1960.jpg
| caption            = Friedan in 1960
| birth_name         = Bettye Naomi Goldstein
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1921|2|4}}
| birth_place        = [[Peoria, Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2006|2|4|1921|2|4}}
| death_place        = Washington, D.C., U.S.
| education          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Smith College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
* [[University of California, Berkeley]]
}}
| occupation         = {{hlist|Writer|activist}}
| notable_works      = ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'' (1963)
| spouse             = {{Marriage|Carl Friedan|1947|1969|end=divorced}}
| children           = 3, including [[Daniel Friedan|Daniel]]
}}

'''Betty Friedan''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|r|iː|d|ən|,_|f|r|iː|ˈ|d|æ|n|,_|f|r|ɪ|-}};<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict?in=friedan&stress=-s|title=The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary|website=www.speech.cs.cmu.edu}}</ref> February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American [[Feminism|feminist]] writer and activist. 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 feminism|second wave]] of [[Feminism in the United States|American feminism]] in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW), 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 nationwide [[Women's Strike for Equality]] on August 26, the 50th anniversary of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] granting [[women's suffrage in the United States|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 people.

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, with 7 not voting) following intense pressure by women's groups led by NOW in the early 1970s. Following Congressional passage of the amendment, Friedan advocated ratification of the amendment in the states and supported other women's rights reforms. She founded the [[NARAL Pro-Choice America|National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws]] but was later critical of the abortion-centered positions of many liberal feminists.

Regarded as an influential author and intellectual in the United States, Friedan remained active in politics and advocacy until the late 1990s, 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]]'' (1981), critiqued what Friedan saw as the extremist excesses of some feminists.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Second Stage|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/22/books/friedan-second.html?pagewanted=all|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date = November 22, 1981|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Friedan was born '''Bettye Naomi Goldstein'''<ref name="Fox">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/national/05friedan.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=30472e5004a66ea3&ex=1296795600 |first=Margalit |last=Fox |date=February 5, 2006 |title=Betty Friedan, who ignited cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' dies at 85 |work=The New York Times |access-date=February 2, 2010}}</ref><ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/betty-friedan-465800.html Sweet, Corinne (Feb. 7, 2006). ''Ground-Breaking Author of 'The Feminine Mystique' Who Sparked Feminism's Second Wave''. The (London) Independent (obit)]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, Retrieved February 2, 2010.</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/women/article-9035419 ''Betty Friedan'', in ''300 Women Who Changed the World''. Encyclopædia Britannica], Retrieved February 2, 2010.</ref> on February 4, 1921, in [[Peoria, Illinois]],<ref name="nowobit">{{cite web|title=NOW Mourns Foremothers of Feminist, Civil Rights Movements|url=http://www.now.org/nnt/summer-2006/foremothers.html|work=[[National Organization for Women]]|last=Wing Katie Loves Jason|first=Liz|date=Summer 2006|access-date=February 19, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061120203421/http://www.now.org/nnt/summer-2006/foremothers.html|archive-date=November 20, 2006}}</ref> to Harry and Miriam (Horwitz) Goldstein, whose secular<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yenor |first=Scott |title=Betty Friedan and the Birth of Modern Feminism |date=October 12, 2018|url=https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/betty-friedan-and-the-birth-modern-feminism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208151725/https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/betty-friedan-and-the-birth-modern-feminism |url-status=unfit |archive-date=December 8, 2019 |access-date=September 24, 2024 |website=The Heritage Foundation |language=en}}</ref> [[Judaism|Jewish]] families were from Russia and Hungary.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w81L1qAhNjoC&q=Harry+Miriam+Goldstein&pg=PA698|title=History of American Political Thought|first1=Bryan-Paul|last1=Frost|first2=Jeffrey|last2=Sikkenga|year= 2017|publisher=Lexington Books|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0739106242}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womenadvocatesof0000reyn|url-access=registration|title=Women advocates of reproductive rights: eleven who led the struggle in the United States and Great Britain|first=Moira Davison|last=Reynolds|year=1994|publisher=McFarland & Co.|via=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0899509402}}</ref> 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 both [[Marxism|Marxist]] and Jewish circles; she later wrote how she felt isolated from the latter community at times, and felt her "passion against injustice&nbsp;... originated from my feelings of the injustice of anti-Semitism".<ref name="Horowitz_2000">{{harvp|Horowitz|2000}}</ref> She attended [[Peoria High School (Peoria, Illinois)|Peoria High School]], and became involved in the school newspaper. When her application to write a column was turned down, she and six other friends launched a literary magazine called ''Tide,'' which discussed home life rather than school life.

Friedan attended the women's college [[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 SCAN (Smith College Associated News). The editorials became more political under her leadership, taking a strong antiwar stance and occasionally causing controversy.<ref name="Horowitz_2000"/> She graduated ''[[summa cum laude]]'' and [[Phi Beta Kappa]] in 1942 with a major in [[psychology]]. She lived in Chapin House during her time at Smith.<ref>Smith College. The Madeleine, 1942. Northampton: Graduating Class of 1942. Print. Archives, Smith College Special Collections.</ref>

In 1943 she spent a year at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] on a fellowship for graduate work in [[psychology]] with [[Erik Erikson]].<ref name="a">{{cite journal|last=Henderson|first=Margaret|title=Betty Friedan 1921–2006|journal=Australian Feminist Studies|volume=22|issue=53|pages=163–166|date=July 2007|doi=10.1080/08164640701361725|s2cid=144278497}}</ref> She became more politically active, continuing to mix with Marxists (many of her friends were investigated by the [[FBI]]).<ref name="Horowitz_2000"/> In her memoirs, she claimed that her boyfriend at the time had pressured her into turning down a Ph.D. fellowship for further study and abandoning her academic career.

== Writing career ==
[[File:Betty friedan ©Lynn Gilbert.jpg|thumb|Betty Friedan photographed by [[Lynn Gilbert]], 1981]]
[[File:Betty Friedan LOC.jpg|thumb|Friedan in 1987]]

=== Before 1963 ===
After leaving Berkeley, Betty became a journalist for [[left-wing politics|leftist]] and labor union publications. Between 1943 and 1946 she wrote for [[Federated Press]] and between 1946 and 1952 she worked for the [[United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America|United Electrical Workers]]' ''[[UE News]]''. One of her assignments was to report on the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].<ref name="a" />

By then married, Friedan was dismissed from the union newspaper ''UE News'' in 1952 because she was pregnant with her second child.<ref name="biography.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/betty-friedan-9302633|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118015514/http://www.biography.com/people/betty-friedan-9302633|url-status=dead|title=Betty Friedan Biography – Facts, Birthday, Life Story – Biography.com|date=January 18, 2013|archive-date=January 18, 2013|website=archive.is}}</ref> After leaving UE News she became a freelance writer for various magazines, including ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]''.<ref name="a" />

According to Friedan biographer Daniel Horowitz, Friedan started as a labor journalist when she first became aware of women's oppression and exclusion, although Friedan herself disputed this interpretation of her work.<ref>{{harvp|Horowitz|2000|pp=ix–xi}}</ref>

=== ''The Feminine Mystique'' ===
{{Main|The Feminine Mystique{{!}}''The Feminine Mystique''}}
For her 15th college reunion in 1957 Friedan conducted a survey of college graduates, focusing on their education, 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.<ref name=Spender1985>{{cite book|last=Spender|first=Dale|title=For the Record: The Making and Meaning of Feminist Knowledge|year=1985|publisher=[[Women's Press]]|location=London|isbn=0704328623|pages=[https://archive.org/details/forrecord00dale/page/7 7–18]|url=https://archive.org/details/forrecord00dale/page/7}}</ref>

<blockquote>The shores are strewn with the casualties of the feminine mystique. They did give up their own education to put their husbands through college, and then, maybe against their own wishes, ten or fifteen years later, they were left in the lurch by divorce. The strongest were able to cope more or less well, but it wasn't that easy for a woman of forty-five or fifty to move ahead in a profession and make a new life for herself and her children or herself alone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Lynn |title=Particular Passions: Betty Friedan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8JcwHZRa7gC&q=betty+friedan |series=Women of Wisdom Series |year=2012 |publisher=Lynn Gilbert Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-1-61979-593-8}}</ref></blockquote>

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 society|industrial societies]], especially the full-time [[homemaker]] role which Friedan deemed stifling.<ref name=Spender1985/> In her book, Friedan described a depressed suburban housewife who dropped out of college at the age of 19 to get married and raise four children.<ref>''The Feminine Mystique'', p. 8.</ref> She spoke of her own 'terror' at being alone, wrote that she had never once in her life seen a positive female role-model who worked outside the home and also kept a family, and cited numerous cases of housewives who felt similarly trapped. From her psychological background she criticized [[Freud]]'s [[penis envy]] theory, noting a lot of paradoxes in his work, and offered some answers to women desirous of further education.<ref>{{cite news|title=Betty Friedan's Enduring 'Mystique'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/books/review/betty-friedans-enduring-mystique.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 26, 2006|access-date=March 9, 2018|last1=Donadio|first1=Rachel}}</ref>

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

<blockquote>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 [house]wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries&nbsp;... she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question – "Is this all?"<ref>{{cite book|last=Friedan|first=Betty|title=The Feminine Mystique|year=1963|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.|page=15|chapter=1 The Problem That Has No Name}}</ref></blockquote>

Friedan asserted that women are as capable as men for any type of work or any career path against arguments to the contrary by the mass media, educators and psychologists.<ref name="Fox"/> Her book was important not only because it challenged hegemonic [[sexism]] in US society but because it differed from the general emphasis of 19th- and early 20th-century arguments for expanding women's [[education]], [[Political Rights|political rights]], and participation in [[social movements]]. While "first-wave" feminists had often shared an [[Essentialism|essentialist]] view of women's nature and a [[corporatist]] view of society, claiming that [[women's suffrage]], education, and social participation would increase the incidence of [[marriage]], make women better wives and mothers, and improve national and international health and [[efficiency]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gender Conflicts: New Essays in Women's History|last=Valverde|first=Mariana|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1992|editor-last=Iacovetta|editor-first=Franca|location=Toronto|pages=3–4|chapter='When the Mother of the Race is Free': Race, Reproduction, and Sexuality in First-Wave Feminism|editor-last2=Valverde|editor-first2=Mariana}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Devereux|first=Cecily|date=1999|title=New Woman, New World: Maternal Feminism and the New Imperialism in the White Settler Colonies|url=http://www.ensani.ir/storage/Files/20100609131023-24.pdf|journal=Women's Studies International Forum|volume=22|issue=2|pages=175–184|doi=10.1016/S0277-5395(99)00005-9|pmid=22606720|access-date=April 30, 2018|archive-date=August 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809102200/http://www.ensani.ir/storage/Files/20100609131023-24.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Growing a Race: Nellie L. McClung and the Fiction of Eugenic Feminism|last=Devereux|first=Cecily|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=2006|location=Montreal & Kingston|pages=24–26}}</ref> Friedan based women's rights in what she called "the basic human need to grow, man's will to be all that is in him to be".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Feminine Mystique|last=Friedan|first=Betty|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=1963|location=New York|page=373}}</ref> 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 group|consciousness-raising sessions]] and lobbying for the reform of oppressive laws and social views that restricted females.

The book became a bestseller, which many historians believe was the impetus for the "[[Second-wave feminism|second wave]]" of the [[feminist movement|women's movement]] in the United States, and significantly shaped national and world events.<ref name="wo">{{cite book |last =Davis |first =Flora |title =Moving the Mountain: The Women's Movement in America since 1960 |url =https://archive.org/details/movingmountainth00davi |url-access =registration |publisher =Simon & Schuster |year =1991 |location =New York |pages =[https://archive.org/details/movingmountainth00davi/page/50 50–53]|isbn =978-0671602079 }}</ref>

Friedan originally intended to write a sequel to ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'', which was to be called ''Woman: The Fourth Dimension'', but instead wrote only an article by that title, which appeared in the ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]]'' in June 1964.<ref name="anb.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-03896.html|title=American National Biography Online: Friedan, Betty|website=www.anb.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iU97L2XVGN4C&pg=PT312|title=Mass Media and the Shaping of American Feminism, 1963–1975|first=Patricia|last=Bradley|year= 2017|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1604730517}}</ref>

=== Other works ===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?52571-1/fountain-age ''Booknotes'' interview with Friedan on ''The Fountain of Age'', November 28, 1993], [[C-SPAN]]<ref name="cspan">{{cite web | title =Fountain of Age| publisher =[[C-SPAN]] | date =November 28, 1993 | url =https://www.c-span.org/video/?52571-1/fountain-age| access-date =March 26, 2017 }}</ref> }}
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<ref>{{harvp|Siegel|2007|pp=90–91}}</ref>
* Writings for ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'', ''[[Newsday]]'', ''Harper's''<!-- unclear which Harper's, so not linked -->, ''[[Saturday Review (U.S. magazine)|Saturday Review]]'', ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'', ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]]'', ''[[Family Circle]]'', ''[[TV Guide]]'', and ''[[True (magazine)|True]]''.<ref>{{harvp|Siegel|2007|p=90}}</ref>

== Activism in the women's movement ==

=== National Organization for Women ===
[[File:NOW women.jpg|thumb|Billington, Friedan, Ireton, and Rawalt<ref name="SIA">{{cite web |title=(left to right): Billington; Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan (1921–2006); Barbara Ireton (1932–1998); and Marguerite Rawalt (1895–1989) |url=http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_297417 |work=Smithsonian Institution Archives |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=July 11, 2013}}</ref>]]
In 1966 Friedan co-founded, and became the first [[list of presidents of the National Organization for Women|president]] of the [[National Organization for Women]].<ref name="SIA" /> Some of the founders of NOW, including Friedan, were inspired by the failure of the [[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]] to enforce [[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]]; at the Third National Conference of State Commissions on the Status of Women they were prohibited from issuing a resolution that recommended the EEOC carry out its legal mandate to end sex discrimination in employment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1966.html |title=The Feminist Chronicles, 1953–1993 – 1966 – Feminist Majority Foundation |publisher=Feminist.org |access-date=May 5, 2015}}</ref><ref name="makers1">{{cite web |author=MAKERS Team |date=June 30, 2013 |url=http://www.makers.com/blog/nows-47th-anniversary-celebrating-its-founders-and-early-members |title=NOW's 47th Anniversary: Celebrating Its Founders and Early Members |publisher=MAKERS |access-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623165832/https://www.makers.com/blog/nows-47th-anniversary-celebrating-its-founders-and-early-members |archive-date=June 23, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> They thus gathered in Friedan's hotel room to form a new organization.<ref name="makers1"/> On a paper napkin Friedan scribbled the acronym "NOW".<ref name="makers1"/> Later more people became founders of NOW at the October 1966 NOW Organizing Conference.<ref name="autogenerated3">{{cite web|first=Allyson |last=Goldsmith |url=http://now.org/about/history/honoring-our-founders-pioneers/ |title=Honoring Our Founders and Pioneers |publisher=National Organization for Women |date=February 9, 2014 |access-date=May 5, 2015}}</ref> Friedan, with [[Pauli Murray]], wrote NOW's statement of purpose; the original was scribbled on a napkin by Friedan.<ref name="notablebiographies.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Friedan-Betty.html|title=Betty Friedan Biography – life, family, children, name, wife, mother, young, book, information, born|website=Notable Biographies}}</ref> Under Friedan, NOW fiercely advocated the legal equality of women and men.

NOW 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 for 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, an issue that divided some feminists. Also divisive in the 1960s among women was the [[Equal Rights Amendment]], which NOW fully endorsed; by the 1970s, women and labor unions opposed to ERA warmed up to it and began to support it fully. NOW also lobbied for national daycare.<ref name="Fox"/>

NOW also helped women get equal access to public places, which they sometimes did not have. For example, by the early 1950s, women were allowed inside the [[Oak Room (Plaza Hotel)|Oak Room and Bar]] during the evenings, but still barred until 3 p.m. on weekdays, while the stock exchanges operated.<ref name="nycgov">{{cite web |date=July 12, 2005 |title=Plaza Hotel Interior |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2174.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824055351/http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/plazahotel.pdf |archive-date=August 24, 2014 |access-date=January 22, 2015 |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission}}</ref><ref name="Gathje2000"/><ref name=":0OAk">{{Cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Bill|url=https://archive.org/details/plazaharr00harr|title=The Plaza|last2=Clucas|first2=Philip|last3=Smart|first3=Ted|last4=Gibbon|first4=David|last5=Westin Hotels|date=1981|pages=55–56|publisher=Poplar Books|location=Secaucas, N.J.|isbn=978-0-89009-525-6 |language=en|oclc=1036787315}}</ref> In February 1969, Friedan and other members of NOW held a [[sit-in]] and then picketed to protest this; the gender restriction was removed a few months later.<ref name="Times2">{{cite web |author=Curtis Gathje |date=January 16, 2005 |title=What Would Eloise Say? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/opinion/opinionspecial/16gathje.html |access-date=January 8, 2015 |work=New York Times |archive-date=January 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109023014/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/opinion/opinionspecial/16gathje.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gathje2000">{{Cite book|last=Gathje|first=Curtis|url=https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=01ACC6C4-CDC1-4A20-9A6D-AAAFB4C818F5|title=At the Plaza: an illustrated history of the world's most famous hotel|date=2000|isbn=978-1-4668-6700-0|pages=142|publisher=Macmillan + ORM |language=en|oclc=874906584|access-date=December 1, 2020|archive-date=March 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331172612/https://www.overdrive.com/media/1553249/at-the-plaza|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="2:0OAk">{{Cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Bill|url=https://archive.org/details/plazaharr00harr|title=The Plaza|last2=Clucas|first2=Philip|last3=Smart|first3=Ted|last4=Gibbon|first4=David|last5=Westin Hotels|date=1981|pages=56|publisher=Poplar Books|location=Secaucas, N.J.|isbn=978-0-89009-525-6 |language=en|oclc=1036787315}}</ref>

Despite the success NOW achieved under Friedan, her decision to pressure Equal Employment Opportunity to use Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to enforce more job opportunities among American women met with fierce opposition within the organization.<ref>{{harvp|Farber|2004|p=256}}</ref> Siding with arguments from the group's African American members, many of NOW's leaders accepted that the vast number of male and female African Americans who lived below the poverty line needed more job opportunities than women within the middle and upper class.<ref>{{harvp|Farber|2004|p=257}}</ref> Friedan stepped down as president in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.now.org/press/02-06/02-04.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208133536/http://www.now.org/press/02-06/02-04.html|title=NOW statement on Friedan's death|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 8, 2013}}</ref>

In 1973, Friedan founded the [[First Women's Bank (New York)|First Women's Bank and Trust Company]].<ref>{{cite web |date=May 8, 1973 |title=Two Groups Plan Banks Geared Toward Women |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/08/archives/two-groups-plan-banks-geared-toward-women-year-old-effort-sites.html |access-date=November 20, 2024 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>

=== Women's Strike for Equality ===
In 1970 NOW, with Friedan leading the cause, was instrumental in the U.S. Senate's rejection of President [[Richard M. Nixon]]'s Supreme Court nominee [[G. Harrold Carswell]], who had opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act granting (among other things) women workplace equality with men. On August 26, 1970, the 50th anniversary of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Women's Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution]], Friedan organized the national [[Women's Strike for Equality]], and led a march of an estimated 20,000 women in New York City.<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902696,00.html "Nation: Women on the March"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', September 2, 1970, Accessed December 28, 2013</ref><ref>[http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/10/1970_the_womens.php 1970: The Women's National Strike for Equality] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232158/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/10/1970_the_womens.php |date=December 30, 2013 }}, Mary Breasted, [[Village Voice]], September 3, 1970, Accessed December 28, 2013</ref><ref>[http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/2013/07/15/local-photographer-remembers-fight-for-gender-equality-demonstration-on-liberty-island/ Local Photographer Remembers Fight for Gender Equality, Demonstration on Liberty Island] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231000649/http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/2013/07/15/local-photographer-remembers-fight-for-gender-equality-demonstration-on-liberty-island/ |date=December 31, 2013 }}, Matt Hunger, ''[[Jersey City Independent]]'', Accessed December 28, 2013</ref> While the march's primary objective was promoting equal opportunities for women in jobs and education,<ref name=freidtime /> protestors and organizers of the event also demanded abortion rights and the establishment of child-care centers.<ref name=freidtime>[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876783-1,00.html "Nation: Who's Come a Long Way, Baby?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301200745/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876783-1,00.html |date=March 1, 2021 }}, ''Time'', August 31, 1970, Accessed December 28, 2013.</ref>

Friedan spoke about the Strike for Equality:

<blockquote>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 [be] addressing ourselves to.<ref name="UPI">[http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/50th-Anniversary-of-Women%27s-Suffrage/12303235577467-12/ anon, ''1970 Year in Review: 50th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage'', UPI (United Press International)], as accessed June 18, 2013.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>So I think individual women will react differently; some will not cook that day, some will engage in dialog with their husband[s], 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.<ref name="UPI" />
</blockquote>

=== National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws ===
[[File:Albert M. Sacks, Pauli Murray, Dr. Mary Bunting; Alma Lutz, and Betty Friedan.jpg|thumb|Rear, L to R, Prof. Albert M. Sacks, Pauli Murray, Dr. Mary Bunting; Seated, L to R, [[Alma Lutz]], suffragette and Harvard Law School Forum Guest, and Betty Friedan]]

Friedan founded the [[National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws]], renamed [[National Abortion Rights Action League]] after the [[Roe v. Wade|Supreme Court had legalized abortion]] in 1973.

=== Politics ===
In 1970 Friedan led other feminists in derailing the nomination of Supreme Court nominee [[G. Harrold Carswell]], whose record of racial discrimination and antifeminism made him unacceptable and unfit to sit on the highest court in the land to virtually everyone in the civil rights and feminist movements. Friedan's impassioned testimony before the Senate helped sink Carswell's nomination.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gos.sbc.edu/f/friedan.html|title=Gifts of Speech – Betty Friedan|website=gos.sbc.edu|access-date=June 17, 2009|archive-date=February 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224152153/http://gos.sbc.edu/f/friedan.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nwpc.org/nwpc-still-fighting-for-equality-for-women-45-years-later/|title=National Women's Political Caucus|website=National Women's Political Caucus|date=August 26, 2016|access-date=January 18, 2017}}</ref>

In [[1972 United States presidential election|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, although she clashed with other women, notably Steinem, on what should be done there, and how.<ref name="Freeman">{{cite news |title=Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign |first=Jo |last=Freeman |work=University of Illinois at Chicago Women's History Project |date=February 2005 |url=http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150126085532/http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm |archive-date=January 26, 2015 }}</ref>

=== Movement image and unity ===
One of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century, Friedan (in addition to many others) 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.<ref name="youtube.com">{{YouTube|iDZh3nY9clY|CBCtv interview of Betty Friedan}}, from [http://www.cbc.ca CBCtv (Canadian television)]</ref> In 1982, after 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.<ref name="notablebiographies.com"/><ref name="youtube.com" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hulu.com/watch/55118/independent-lens-sisters-of-77|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324121019/http://www.hulu.com/watch/55118/independent-lens-sisters-of-77|url-status=dead|title=Hulu – PBS Indies: Sisters of '77 – Watch the full episode now<!-- Bot generated title -->|archive-date=March 24, 2009}}</ref>

She pushed the feminist movement to focus on economic issues, especially equality in employment and business as well as provision for child care and other means by which both women and men could balance family and work. She tried to lessen the focuses on abortion, as an issue already won, and on rape and pornography, which she believed most women did not consider to be high priorities.<ref>{{harvp|Friedan|1997|loc=e.g. pp. 8–9}}</ref>

=== Related issues ===

==== Lesbian politics ====
When she grew up in [[Peoria, Illinois]], she knew only one gay man. She said, "the whole idea of homosexuality made me profoundly uneasy."<ref name="LifeSoFar_221">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=221}}</ref> 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".<ref name="LifeSoFar_223">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=223}}</ref><ref group="Note">On equal opportunity in jobs: [[equal opportunity employment]], access to jobs without suffering discrimination on certain grounds.</ref><ref group="Note">On freedom of sexual choice: [[human female sexuality#Feminist views]], how feminism addresses a wide range of sexual issues.</ref> She ignored lesbians in the [[National Organization for Women]] ([[National Organization for Women|NOW]]) initially, and objected to what she saw as their demands for equal time. <ref name="LifeSoFar_221" /> While President of NOW, Friedan coined the term [[Lavender Menace|"lavender menace"]] during a meeting in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lavender Menace: the Phrase, the Group, the Controversy |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/lavender-menace-feminism-definition-3528970 |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref> She voiced this opinion while claiming that lesbians and homosexuality were a "threat to the feminist movement."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lavender Menace: the Phrase, the Group, the Controversy |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/lavender-menace-feminism-definition-3528970 |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref> "Homosexuality&nbsp;... is not, in my opinion, what the women's movement is all about."<ref name="LifeSoFar_222">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=222}}</ref> While opposing all repression, she wrote, she refused to wear a purple armband as an act of political solidarity, considering it not part of the mainstream issues of abortion and [[childcare|child care]].<ref name="LifeSoFar_248-249">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|pp=248–249}}</ref>

But 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]] ([[Equal Rights Amendment|ERA]]) to the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]].<ref name="LifeSoFar_295">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=295}}</ref> She accepted lesbian sexuality, albeit not its politicization.<ref name="2dStage-p307-308">{{harvp|Friedan|1998|pp=307–308}}</ref> In 1995, at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, she found advice given by Chinese authorities to taxi drivers that naked lesbians would be "cavorting" in their cars so that the drivers should hang sheets outside their cab windows, and that lesbians would have AIDS and so drivers should carry disinfectants, to be "ridiculous", "incredibly stupid" and "insulting".<ref name="LifeSoFar_365">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=365}}</ref> In 1997, she wrote that "children&nbsp;... will ideally come from mother and father."<ref name="BeyondGender_91">{{harvp|Friedan|1997|p=91}}</ref> She wrote in 2000, "I'm more relaxed about the whole issue now."<ref name="LifeSoFar_249">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=249}}</ref>

In 2022 the board of trustees of the [[Peoria Public Schools]] school district considered renaming Washington Gifted School after Friedan, but a board member brought up comments by Friedan perceived to be discriminatory against LGBT people, and so another name, Reservoir Gifted Academy, was chosen for the school.<ref name=HurtigFiveschools>{{cite web|last=Hurtig|first=Sheridan|url=https://www.centralillinoisproud.com:443/news/local-news/new-names-coming-to-5-peoria-public-schools/|title=New names coming to 5 Peoria Public Schools|website=[[WMBD-TV]] (Central Illinois Proud)|publisher=[[Nexstar Media Group]]|date=March 14, 2022|access-date=November 2, 2024}}</ref>

==== Abortion choice ====
She supported the concept that abortion is a woman's choice, that it shouldn't be a crime or exclusively a doctor's choice or anyone else involved, and helped form [[NARAL Pro-Choice America#History|NARAL]] (now [[NARAL Pro-Choice America]]) at a time when [[Planned Parenthood]] wasn't yet supportive.<ref name="LifeSoFar_212-216">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|pp=212–216}}</ref> Alleged death threats against her speaking on abortion led to the cancellation of two events, although subsequently one of the host institutions, Loyola College, invited her back to speak on abortion and other homosexual rights issues and she did so.<ref name="LifeSoFar_219">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=219}}</ref> Her draft of NOW's first statement of purpose included an abortion plank, but NOW didn't include it until the next year.<ref name="LifeSoFar_176">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=176}}</ref>

In 1980, she believed abortion should be in the context of "the choice to have children", a formulation supported by the Roman Catholic [[priesthood (Catholic Church)|priest]] organizing Catholic participation in the White House Conference on Families for that year,<ref name="2dStage-p94-95">{{harvp|Friedan|1998|pp=94–95}}</ref> though perhaps not by the [[bishop (Catholic Church)|bishops]] above him.<ref name="2dStage-p98">{{harvp|Friedan|1998|p=98}}</ref> A resolution embodying the formulation passed at the conference by 460 to 114, whereas a resolution addressing abortion, ERA and [[sexual orientation|"sexual preference"]] passed by only 292–291 and that only after 50 opponents of abortion had walked out and so hadn't voted on it.<ref name="2dStage-p95-96">{{harvp|Friedan|1998|pp=95–96}}</ref> She disagreed with a resolution that framed abortion in more feminist terms that was introduced in the [[Minneapolis]] regional conference resulting from the same White House Conference on Families, believing it to be more polarizing, while the drafters apparently thought Friedan's formulation too conservative.<ref name="2dStage-p97-98">{{harvp|Friedan|1998|pp=97–98}}</ref>

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."<ref name="LifeSoFar_377">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=377}}</ref> 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?"<ref name="2dStage-p246-248esp247">{{harvp|Friedan|1998|pp=246–248}}</ref>

==== Pornography ====
She joined nearly 200 others in [[Feminist views on pornography#Feminist critique of censorship|Feminists for Free Expression]] in opposing the [[Pornography Victims Compensation Act|Pornography Victims' Compensation Act]]. "To suppress free speech in the name of protecting women is dangerous and wrong," said Friedan. "Even some blue-jean ads are insulting and denigrating. I'm not adverse to a boycott, but I don't think they should be suppressed."<ref>Puente, Maria, ''Bill Holds Porn Producers Liable For Sex Crimes'', in ''USA Today'', April 15, 1992, p.&nbsp;09A.</ref>

==== War ====
In 1968, Friedan signed the "[[Writers and Editors War Tax Protest]]" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.<ref>"Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 ''[[New York Post]]''</ref>

==== Gun violence ====
Friedan cofounded WoMen Against Gun Violence with Ann Reiss Lane in 1994.<ref>{{cite web |title=Who We Are |url=https://wagv.org/about-wagv/who-we-are/ |website=wagv.org |access-date=February 23, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Conversation With Ann Reiss Lane : 'We Cannot Live in These Communities Any Longer' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-10-me-10298-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=January 10, 1994 |access-date=February 23, 2024}}</ref>

== Influence ==
Friedan is credited for starting the contemporary feminist movement and writing a book that is one of the cornerstones of American feminism.<ref name=WolfMystique>{{cite web|last=Wolf|first= Allan|title=The Mystique of Betty Friedan|website= [[The Atlantic]]|date= September 1999|url= https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99sep/9909friedan.htm}}</ref> 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.<ref name="NowTribute">National Organization for Women. ''Tributes to Betty Friedan''. {{cite web|url=http://www.now.org/history/friedan-tribute-compilation.html |title=Tributes to Betty Friedan |access-date=April 29, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511203118/http://www.now.org/history/friedan-tribute-compilation.html |archive-date=May 11, 2008 }}</ref> 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."<ref name=WolfMystique /> 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 ''The Feminine Mystique''<ref name="Horowitz_2000"/> and pointed out that Friedan's feminism did not start in the 1950s but even earlier, in the 1940s.<ref name="Horowitz_2000"/> Focusing his study on Friedan's ideas in feminism rather than on her personal life<ref name="Horowitz_2000"/> Horowitz's book gave Friedan a major role in the history of American feminism.<ref name="Horowitz_2000"/>

Justine Blau was also greatly influenced by Friedan. In ''Betty Friedan: Feminist'' Blau wrote of the feminist movement's influence on Friedan's personal and professional life.<ref>Blau, Justine. ''Betty Friedan: Feminist''. Chelsea House Publications, 1990.</ref> Lisa Fredenksen Bohannon, in ''Woman's work: The story of Betty Friedan'', went deep into Friedan's personal life and wrote about her relationship with her mother.<ref>Bohannon, Lisa Fredenksen. ''Woman's work: The story of Betty Friedan''. Morgan Reynolds, 2004.</ref> 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 traced Friedan's life with an analysis of ''The Feminine Mystique''.<ref>Sheman, Janann. ''Interviews with Betty Friedan''. University Press of Mississippi, 2002.</ref>

Friedan (among others) was featured in the 2013 documentary ''[[Makers: Women Who Make America]]'', about the women's movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-weinreich/makers-the-women-who-make-america_b_2646816.html|title=Gloria Steinem and the Faces of Feminism: Makers: Women Who Make America|first=Regina|last=Weinreich|website=[[HuffPost]]|date=February 8, 2013}}</ref>

In 2014, a biography of Friedan was added to the American National Biography Online (ANB).<ref name="anb.org"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hnn.us/article/155461|title=Betty Friedan, Norman Mailer among new biographies added to the American National Biography Online|website=www.hnn.us|access-date=May 1, 2014|archive-date=April 30, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140430041820/http://www.hnn.us/article/155461|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Personality ==
''[[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".

Media focus would fall on feminists grading each other on personality and appearance, the source of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem's well-documented antipathy.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Dean|first1=Michelle|title=On the 'Anger' of Betty Friedan and 'The Feminine Mystique|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/anger-betty-friedan-and-feminine-mystique/|website=[[The Nation]]|date=February 17, 2013|access-date=April 4, 2016}}</ref> In February 2006, shortly after Friedan's death, the feminist writer [[Germaine Greer]] published an article in ''[[The Guardian]]'',<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/gender/story/0,,1703933,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=The Betty I knew | first=Germaine | last=Greer | date=February 7, 2006 | access-date=April 26, 2010}}</ref> in which she described Friedan as pompous and [[egotism|egotistic]], somewhat demanding and sometimes selfish, citing several incidents during a 1972 tour of [[Iran]].<ref name="Fox"/>

{{quotation|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)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/07/gender.bookscomment|title=The Betty I knew|first=Germaine|last=Greer|newspaper=The Guardian |date=February 7, 2006|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>}}

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."<ref>Ginsberg L., "Ex-hubby fires back at feminist icon Betty", ''New York Post'', July 5, 2000</ref>

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

{{quotation|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 [[yuppie|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,<ref>{{cite web|title=Remembering those who left us this year|url=https://ew.com/article/2006/12/22/remembering-those-who-left-us-this-year/|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|access-date=9 March 2018}}</ref> section Farewell, pg. 94}}

{{quotation|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<ref name="LifeSoFar_379">{{harvp|Friedan|2001|p=379}}</ref>}}

{{quotation|The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.|Betty Friedan|''The Feminine Mystique''

== Personal life ==
She married Carl Friedan ({{ne|Friedman}}), a theater producer, in 1947 while working at UE News. She continued to work after marriage; first as a paid employee and, after 1952, as a freelance journalist. The couple divorced in May 1969, and Carl died in December 2005.

Friedan stated in her memoir ''Life So Far'' (2000) that Carl had [[Domestic violence|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.&nbsp;70). Carl denied abusing her in an interview with ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine shortly after the book was published, describing the claim as a "complete fabrication".<ref name="Fox"/> 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 and Betty Friedan had three children, [[Daniel Friedan|Daniel]], Emily and Jonathan. She was raised in a Jewish family, but was an agnostic.{{#tag:ref|"As an agnostic Jew many of whose Jewish friends had become Unitarians, she arranged a Bar Mitzvah celebration for Daniel."<ref>{{harvp|Horowitz|2000|p=170}}</ref>|group=Note}} In 1973, Friedan was one of the signers of the [[Humanist Manifesto II]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II|title=Humanist Manifesto II|publisher=American Humanist Association|access-date=October 9, 2012|archive-date=October 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Death ==
Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2006, her 85th birthday.{{#tag:ref|"Betty Friedan, the feminist crusader and author whose searing first book, ''The Feminine Mystique'', ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world, died yesterday, her 85th birthday, at her home in Washington. The cause was congestive heart failure, said Emily Bazelon, a family spokeswoman.&nbsp;... For decades a familiar presence on television and the lecture circuit, Ms. Friedan, with her short stature and deeply hooded eyes, looked for much of her adult life like a 'combination of [[Hermione Gingold]] and [[Bette Davis]],' as [[Judy Klemesrud]] wrote in [[The New York Times Magazine]] in 1970."<ref name="Fox"/>|group=Note}}

==Papers==
Some of Friedan's papers are held at the [[Schlesinger Library]], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00060|title=Friedan, Betty. Additional papers of Betty Friedan, 1937–1993 (inclusive), 1970–1993 (bulk): A Finding Aid|website=oasis.lib.harvard.edu|access-date=March 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313214548/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00060|archive-date=March 13, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Awards and honors ==
* Honorary doctorate of humane letters from [[Smith College]] (1975)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUqo-_9mZ7sC&q=friedan+%22honorary+doctorate+of+humane+letters%22+smith&pg=PA226|title=Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed The World|first1=Deborah G.|last1=Felder|first2=Diana|last2=Rosen|year= 2017|publisher=Citadel Press|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0806526560}}</ref>
* [[Humanist of the Year]] from the [[American Humanist Association]] (1975)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://americanhumanist.org/AHA/Humanists_of_the_Year|title=Humanists of the Year<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=March 13, 2014|archive-date=November 28, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128162005/http://americanhumanist.org/aha/humanists_of_the_year|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Mort Weisinger]] Award from the [[American Society of Journalists and Authors]] (1979)<ref name="www2.edc.org">{{cite web|url=http://www2.edc.org/womensequity/women/friedan.htm|title=Women's Equity Resource Center|website=www2.edc.org}}</ref>
* From 1981 to 1983, [[Bonnie Tiburzi]] put on three "Women of Accomplishment" luncheons for the [[Wings Club]] honoring certain women, including Friedan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://womenthatsoar.com/bonnie-tiburzi/ |title=Bonnie Tiburzi – Women That Soar 2020 |publisher=Womenthatsoar.com |access-date=March 9, 2020}}</ref>
* Honorary doctorate of humane letters from the [[State University at Stony Brook]] (1985)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/specials/friedan-run.html|title=For Friedan, a Life on the Run|website=The New York Times}}</ref>
* [[Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award]] (1989)<ref name="www2.edc.org"/>
* Honorary doctorate of humane letters from [[Bradley University]] (1991)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lydia.bradley.edu/advising/pdfs/GeneralInfo.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=March 20, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407074936/http://lydia.bradley.edu/advising/pdfs/GeneralInfo.pdf |archive-date=April 7, 2014 }}</ref>
* Induction into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]] (1993)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall/details/2/61-friedan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113072952/http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall/details/2/61-Friedan|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 13, 2013|title=Home – National Women's Hall of Fame|website=National Women's Hall of Fame}}</ref>
* Honorary doctorate of letters from [[Columbia University]] (1994)<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 27, 1994|title=Columbia University Record – Texts of Citations for Honorary Degree Recipients|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol19/vol19_iss30/record1930.23|access-date=February 3, 2022|website=columbia.edu|series=Vol. 19 No. 30|archive-date=October 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031210222/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol19/vol19_iss30/record1930.23|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* "The 75 Most Important Women of the Past 75 Years" – ''[[Glamour (magazine)|Glamour]]'' magazine listed Friedan as one of them (2014)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glamour.com/inspired/2014/02/the-most-inspiring-female-celebrities-entrepreneurs-and-political-figures/28|title=The Most Inspiring Female Celebrities, Entrepreneurs, and Political Figures|work=Glamour|date=February 7, 2014|access-date=April 15, 2015|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114527/http://www.glamour.com/inspired/2014/02/the-most-inspiring-female-celebrities-entrepreneurs-and-political-figures/28|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== In media ==
Friedan was portrayed by actress [[Tracey Ullman]] in the 2020 [[FX (TV channel)|FX]] limited series ''[[Mrs. America (miniseries)|Mrs. America]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sarah Paulson, John Slattery Among 11 Cast in Cate Blanchett's FX Limited Series 'Mrs America'|url=https://www.thewrap.com/sarah-paulson-john-slattery-among-11-cast-in-cate-blanchetts-fx-limited-series-mrs-america|work=[[TheWrap]]|date=May 14, 2019|publisher=Thewrap.com|access-date=May 14, 2019}}</ref>

Friedan was portrayed by [[Tracee Chimo]] in Season 1, Episode 7 "Foie Gras" of the [[Max (streaming service)|HBO Max]] series "[[Julia (2022 TV series)|Julia]]". The scene, which takes place at a Public Television gala in New York, depicts a conversation between Friedan and [[Julia Child]], in which Friedan criticizes Child's cooking show on WGBH, suggesting that it harms women.

A fictionalized version of her was a character in the [[Britney Spears]] jukebox musical [[Once Upon a One More Time]] as the 'Original Fairy Godmother' who gives the fairytale princesses 'The Feminine Mystique' to empower themselves. In the show, she is a fairy godmother who was banished from the fairytales and went to live in Flatbush to publish the book.

Friedan herself appeared in two films, including ''Camera Three'' and ''Happily Ever After: Fairy Tails for Every Child'', in 1955 and 1995 respectively. She also narrated two television shows, "Ex Libris" and "Bicentennial Minutes".<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0294983/ including Camera Three and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tails for Every Child] IMDB.com</ref>

== Books ==
* ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'' (1963)
* ''It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement'' (1976)
* ''[[The Second Stage]]'' (1981)
* ''The Fountain of Age'' (1993)
* ''Beyond Gender'' (1997)
* ''Life So Far'' (2000)

== See also ==
{{Portal|Feminism|Biography}}
* [[List of women's rights activists]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=Note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|40em}}
* {{cite book |last=Farber |first=David |year=2004 |title=The Sixties Chronicle |publisher=Legacy Publishing |isbn=141271009X }}
* {{cite book |last=Friedan |first=Betty |year=1997 |editor=Brigid O'Farrell |title=Beyond Gender: The New Politics of Work and Family |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press |isbn=0-943875-84-6 }}
* {{cite book |last=Friedan |first=Betty |year=1998 |orig-year=1981 |title=The Second Stage |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-79655-1 |title-link=The Second Stage }}
* {{cite book |last=Friedan |first=Betty |year=2001 |title=Life So Far: A Memoir |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-7432-0024-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Horowitz |first=Daniel |year=2000 |title=Betty Friedan and the Making of ''The Feminine Mystique'': The American Left, the Cold War and Modern Feminism |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |location=Amherst, MA |isbn=978-1558492769 }}
* {{cite book |last=Siegel |first=Deborah |year=2007 |title=Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild |location=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-8204-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/sisterhoodinterr0000sieg }}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|40em}}
* Blau, Justine. ''Betty Friedan: Feminist'', paperback edition, Women of Achievement, 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}}
* [[Susan Brownmiller|Brownmiller, Susan]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070719200440/http://www.susanbrownmiller.com/html/in_our_time.html ''In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution''], [[The Dial Press]], 1999, {{ISBN|0-385-31486-8}}
* [http://dmr.bsu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/KPatrickMem&CISOPTR=1652&REC=1 Friedan, Betty. "Breaking Through the Age Mystique". 1991], Proceedings from the Kirkpatrick Memorial Conference. Muncie, IN.
* Friedan, Betty. ''Fountain of Age'', Paperback Edition, Simon & 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 & 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}}
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Horowitz | first1 = Daniel | title = Rethinking Betty Friedan and ''The Feminine Mystique'': Labor Union Radicalism and Feminism in Cold War America | journal = [[American Quarterly]] | volume = 48 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–42 | publisher = [[Johns Hopkins University Press]] | doi = 10.1353/aq.1996.0010 | date = March 1996 | s2cid = 144768306 }}
* Horowitz, Daniel. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1558491686 "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}}
* Kaplan, Marion. [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/friedan-betty "Betty Friedan"], Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia.
* [[Milton Meltzer|Meltzer, Milton]]. ''Betty Friedan: A Voice For Women's Rights'', hardcover edition, Viking Press 1985, {{ISBN|0-670-80786-9}}
* {{Cite journal | last = Moskowitz | first = Eva | author-link = Eva Moskowitz | title = It's Good to Blow Your Top: Women's Magazines and a Discourse of Discontent, 1945–1965 | journal = [[Journal of Women's History]] | volume = 8 | issue = 3 | pages = 66–98 | publisher = [[Johns Hopkins University Press]] | doi = 10.1353/jowh.2010.0458 | date =Fall 1996 | s2cid = 144197986 }}
* 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'' (New York: 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}}
{{refend}}

===Obituaries===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060206030655/http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/04/friedan.obit.ap/index.html Betty Friedan, philosopher of modern-day feminism, dies] – [[CNN]], February 4, 2006.
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/national/05friedan.html Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85] – ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 5, 2006.
* {{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401385.html|title=Voice of Feminism's 'Second Wave'|date=February 5, 2006|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | first=Patricia | last=Sullivan | access-date=March 31, 2010}}
* {{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-friedan5feb05,0,2296445.story|title=Betty Friedan, Philosopher Of Modern-day Feminism, Dies|date=February 4, 2006|work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | first=Elaine | last=Woo}}
* {{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-friedan5feb05,0,2472152.story|title=Catalyst of Feminist Revolution|date=February 5, 2006|work=Los Angeles Times | first=Elaine | last=Woo}}
* {{cite news|url=https://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/02/05/betty_friedan_feminist_visionary_dies_at_85/|title=Betty Friedan, feminist visionary, dies at 85|date=February 5, 2006|work=The Boston Globe | first=Mark | last=Feeney}}
* {{cite news|url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060227/pollitt|title=Betty Friedan, 1921–2006|date=February 9, 2006|work=The Nation}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/07/gender.bookscomment Anything you can do, Icon do better] – [[Germaine Greer]] remembers Betty Friedan

== External links ==
{{commons}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/12/28/the-feminine-mystique-betty-friedan/ The Feminine Mystique – 50 years on]
* [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_81-9995xhm0 Interview with Betty Friedan in WNED public television series ''Woman'', 1974] from the [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]] 
* [http://www.bradley.edu/bettyfriedantribute/ The Betty Friedan Tribute website hosted by Bradley University, Peoria, IL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624050233/https://www.bradley.edu/bettyfriedantribute/ |date=June 24, 2019 }}
* [https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/betty-friedan/ National Women's Hall of Fame: Betty Friedan]
* {{C-SPAN|878}}
** [http://www.c-span.org/video/?170790-1/writings-betty-friedan "Writings of Betty Friedan"] from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]''
* [http://www.encyclopaediajudaica.com/sample-articles/article_view.php?sid=betty-friedan Betty Friedan's Biography from The Encyclopaedia Judaica]
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/friedan.htm The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud] (chapter 5 of ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'')
* [https://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/friedan.htm First Measured Century: Interview: Betty Friedan]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140421173719/http://www.latebloomerstories.com/2009/07/betty-friedan-1921-2006.html Betty Friedan: Late Bloomer.]
* [http://cf.en.cl/ Cheerless Fantasies, A Corrective Catalogue of Errors in Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique]
* [http://www.moondance.org/2006/spring2006/nonfiction/friedan.html After a Life of Telling It Like It Is: Betty Friedan Dies at Age 85], Lys Anzia, ''[[Moondance (magazine)|Moondance]]''. Spring 2006
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00059 Papers of Betty Friedan, 1933–1985: A Finding Aid.] [http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles Schlesinger Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509153246/http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles |date=May 9, 2012 }}, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00210 Video collection of Betty Friedan, ca.1970–2006: A Finding Aid.] [http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles Schlesinger Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509153246/http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles |date=May 9, 2012 }}, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch01317 Audio collection of Betty Friedan, 1963–2007: A Finding Aid.] [http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles Schlesinger Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509153246/http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles |date=May 9, 2012 }}, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
* [http://jewishhistorylectures.org/2013/05/24/betty-friedan-jews-and-american-feminism/Video Lecture on Betty Friedan: Jews and American Feminism]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} by [[Henry Abramson|Dr. Henry Abramson]] of [[Touro College South]]
* Michals, Debra [https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betty-friedan "Betty Friedan"]. National Women's History Museum. 2017.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzXYvv1ClnM Interview with Betty Friedan], ''A DISCUSSION WITH National Authors on Tour'' TV Series, Episode #120 (1994)

{{s-start}}
{{succession box | before = (none) | title = [[List of Presidents of the National Organization for Women|President of the National Organization for Women]] |years=1966–1970| after = [[Aileen Hernandez]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Liberal feminism}}
{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States]]
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