Feminist Author Betty Friedan Dies at 85

[JI7]

<WASHINGTON — Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.

Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.

Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.

The feminine mystique, she said, was a phony bill of goods society sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.

As a founder and first president of the National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave>

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3636392.html

[flamingyouth]

1. RIP

:(

[RandomKoolzip]

2. Shit, Friedan and Al Lewis on the same day....

and Coretta Scott King just a few days ago....Shit. All the good ones are leaving us.

[Delphinus]

41. And I was thinking

Wendy Wasserstein (sp?). All had great insight.

[noonwitch]

67. Al Lewis died today? I always loved Grandpa Munster

Such a funny guy.

[CTyankee]

3. I'm sad. Hadn't heard from her lately

I probably should have guessed that she wasn't well. I didn't realiz she was that old, actually.

[rodeodance]

9. founder of NOW in 1966

As a founder and first president of the National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave>

[maddezmom]

4. she was a mavrick

RIP

[rodeodance]

14. and she made it possible for women to think differently--to be something

other than the stay at home mom. How that has played out in past 40 years is another story.

[Wilms]

5. .

[Captain Hilts]

6. I ran into her at Mystics games and at the Cosmos Club. Rest in peace.

[Progressive4Life]

7. That's three good people this week

First Coretta Scott-King, then Al Lewis, now Betty Friedan! All three will be sorely missed. :(

[Vidar]

47. Why don't any of the evil scum die anymore--plenty of them.?

[Faygo Kid]

8. She died on her 85th birthday. Today.

Wow. Not very important, but I had just read this morning that it was her 85th birthday. She made such a difference, and that fight is so often taken for granted. As we turn the clock backwards ever more rapidly, maybe what she fought for will again be appreciated.

[rodeodance]

10. nominate please

[elfin]

11. Dammit

I hope there is a HUGE service for her - CSPan included She advanced social and legal rights for women immeasurably.

[joeybee12]

12. My God! What ground she broke!

R.I.P. Betty.

[Benhurst]

13. recommended nt

[hlthe2b]

15. Heavens... RIP, Betty

You made a real difference, and like Coretta Scott King, lived long enough to see change. Sadly, not long enough to see true gender and race equality...

[tishaLA]

16. A Great Woman

RIP.

[Warpy]

17. She lived a long life and did a lot of damage to the right sort

of people. She lived long enough to see her ideas go from radical to mainstream.

She will be missed.

[EFerrari]

18. Peace, Betty, thank you for changing our lives for the better. n/t

[bluestateguy]

19. I enjoyed her book very much

She was a sharp woman, who inspired a movement that did a lot of good. I have always admired and respected Friedan's work.

[PlanetBev]

20. Here comes the slander

from hose-bags like Kate O'Beirne and Ann Coulter. Did it ever occur to these unthinking idiots that they've gotten as far as they did because of pioneers like Betty Friedan?

God, I hate these people.

[mongo]

68. Glenn Beck was already doing that this morning

Irratainment on the way to work is my guilty pleasure.

I won't repeat what that asshole was saying about her -- I know other people don't enjoy rising blood presure as much as I do...

[Crunchy Frog]

21. RIP Betty.

Her book came out the year I was born. I read it as a young college student and it made a very deep impression on me. I'm wondering how long it will be before the notion that "women should aspire to separate identities as individuals" will once again be considered radical. :-(

[marylanddem]

22. "The Feminine Mystique" was mind-blowing

and consciousness raising - it had a profound impact on us. Betty, you are in our hearts forever.

[ewagner]

23. RIP Betty

My wife went back to school at the tender young age of 45.

She got her MBA before her 50th birthday.

She noted that when she was a Home Economics Major in the '60s it was almost unheard of for Woman to be pursuing business degrees, much less a Masters. This time, over half her class was female.

You think Betty had anything to do with that?

You bet she did.

[CTyankee]

32. Hey another late bloomer!

I went back to finish up my B.A. at age 55. Took 18 months. Then I went for an M.A. in Liberal Studies (just for the general hell of it). Took 4 1/2 years! It was a great journey. I am almost glad I went back late in life because when I was younger I didn't appreciate it.

Betty changed our world, that's for sure.

[ewagner]

60. Good for you!

You have to be very proud of those achievements....

belated congratulations

[loudsue]

24. Wow! RIP Betty Friedan! We've been better off as a world for you having

been here. O8)

What a major impact she has had on my life, and the lives of millions of women, their husbands or partners, and their children around the globe.

I hope you'll become an angel to work again on our behalf from the great beyond. Put in a good word for the women across the globe when you get there!

:cry: That was one courageous woman. The courage of one strengthens the many. :cry:

:kick:

[malaise]

25. RIP sister

Thanks for everything you achieved for all of us women. You made life easier for all of us.

[Evergreen Emerald]

26. Betty

You will be missed.

[spooky3]

27. Thank you, Ms. Friedan. May your work be carried on. K&R

[benny05]

28. Many of my heroes are dying

I guess I'm gettin' older too.

Betty was one of them.

May we all bestow blessings on her and her family at this time.

[Susan43]

29. Another sad day for America...

She started the modern feminist movement that allowed all of us women the freedom to be whatever we wanted. It was not that way 40 years ago. We did not get equal wages for equal work, we could not buy a house on our own, or have credit in our own name. Husband beat you up? Too bad, it's a "family issue."

Betty started us on the road to make big changes in our own lives. I for one owe her a big thank you.

BTW I was trying to think of something just yesterday and it's driving me nuts. When the movement first started, we would talk about that moment when we first realized that we were not free. We had a word or phrase for it and I can't remember what it was. Anybody have a clue.

Dear Betty, RIP and thank you.

[RazzleDazzle]

30. Ack. You're right, and now I can't think of it either

damn

oh, and we still don't get equal pay for equal work, but we DO get the lip service. Everyone says it's the right thing to do; no one in a position to do so does it. Well, damn few, otherwise the stats wouldn't be where they are.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. The word you're thinking of is "click"

At least that was the one that MS magazine used.

[Susan43]

42. Thanks Lydia,

It was driving me nuts. I had a moment like that a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to remember ever since.

I appreciate it.

[niyad]

50. the "click"

[RebelOne]

54. I think it was "clique," pronounced as "click."

[Hekate]

57. "Clique"-- closed-off little in-group."Click" -- a moment of realization

It comes from the sound of a light going on. You enter a dark room, grope for the switchplate, and "click!" the light goes on.

You live your life as you are supposed to do: work hard, get married, have kids, but nothing is quite right, something is missing. You grope for answers, and finally see how gender influences EVERYthing. "Click!"

I was 21 and away at college (sales-clerking my way through). My mother had raised me to be a wife and mother, but also to believe that a college degree was some kind of Holy Grail that had to be attained first. Well, we are a bookish family, and it is no doubt due to her expectations that we all have college degrees today.

Suddenly I got this letter (I still have it some place) telling me she had read this book, The Feminine Mystique, and I HAD to read it. It gave a name to her own terrible dissatisfaction (and, had I known it then, her internalized feelings of failure at not having been able to overcome her own conditioning). She also said -- that is, my mother, writing to me -- that she had raised me all wrong, "but it's not too late for your sister" who was just starting high school.

Thanks -- I think.

I'm not sure how much I got out of reading The Feminine Mystique -- I think I was too hurt and confused at being told that I was in effect a failed experiment to absorb much at the time.

But Betty Friedan had unleashed an incredible force in society, and society did change. As only one example: Newspapers started running articles about things like women who handled the family finances for decades being left without any financial history at all if their husbands died or divorced them. When I got married, I was careful to retain a checking account and credit cards in my own name, as a hedge against that kind of invisibility. And so much more.

So yes, thank you Betty Friedan, Mother of Second Wave Feminism. May the Goddess grant you peace and rest from your labors. We still have far to go, but we'll take it from here.

Hekate

[Hekate]

58. Scholarly joy: Feminist literature, feminist theology, feminist critiques

When I was an undergrad (the letter from my Mom referenced above came in 1968 or 1969) women's studies were a faint glimmer on the far horizon. I was taught to believe there was such a thing as pure scholarly detachment and objectivity. :eyes:

By the time I returned to graduate school 25 years later I was pretty much over the idea that objectivity could be pure, but was unaware of the extent to which women's studies/feminist criticism/feminist literature had not only been birthed but had matured into a complete and lively branch of scholarship which influences the liberal arts as a whole.

I'd been following my own reading interests in feminist spirituality for a number of years before joining the Mythology program, but was dazzled when I read Rita Gross's Feminism and Religion, and it is really just an introductory text. :party: One of my same-age classmates practically went off the deep end when she discovered French feminist philosophers and critics (they didn't do much for me) and hasn't stopped reading them yet.

I'm just sayin'

Hekate

[TaleWgnDg]

31. Thank you, Betty Friedan for allowing my adult daughter to have

.

Thank you, Betty Friedan for allowing my adult daughter to have the choices and freedom that she enjoys today. For my wife. For my sisters. For my mother. For all women that have been touched w/ Friedan's vision of equality. And, for we, men in America, who can now share a society of equality* for women and their vision.

Here's to Ms. Friedan and may she RIP. A job well-done. Very well done.




Equal Rights Amendment (equalrightsamendment.org)


_______________________________________________
*Full equality of the sexes will fully occur only when the ERA amendment finally becomes part of our nation's U.S. constitution; thus, the law across America:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/

.

[Susan43]

43. This is a great post!

Thank you.

I've been lucky enough to raise a liberated man. I am so proud of my son for believing in rights for all people.

I imagine that is how your mother feels too. I would be very proud of you.

[TaleWgnDg]

46. ty, and welcome to DU, Susan43! . . . n/t

[Maat]

33. Thanks to you, Betty, I got the idea.

I was 8 when you founded NOW, and 5 when you came out with your book. My mother slammed it; the Presbyterian church slammed it. I thought and thought about it. At age 15, I told my family I was not going back to the church because the pastor had stated that wives were to submit to their husbands. I was a feminist, I told them, and was going to complete my Bachelor's in Business as soon as possible. Fortunately, 30 years later, I found a church with a female pastor, and no restrictive dogma.

Thanks to Betty, I've had a great life. I was fortunate; I have been with a man for 30 years (my hubby) who supported my efforts at securing an education, and building a career. She enlightened many, many people, of both sexes.

Rest in peace, Betty.

Now, we are regressing, and I fear for my daughter's future.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

38. "A Woman of Valour"

Friedan was born Betty Naomi Goldstein in Peoria, Illinois. While young, she was active in Marxist and Jewish radical circles.

May she rest in peace. Thank you, Betty Friedan, for all you've done.

Proverbs
Chapter 31

The words of king Lemuel; the burden wherewith his mother corrected him.

What, my son? and what, O son of my womb? and what, O son of my vows?

Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine: nor for princes to say: 'Where is strong drink?'

Lest they drink, and forget that which is decreed, and pervert the justice due to any that is afflicted.

Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in soul;

Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Open thy mouth for the dumb, in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.

Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

A woman of valour who can find? for her price is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, and he hath no lack of gain.

She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life.

She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

She is like the merchant-ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth food to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

She girdeth her loins with strength, and maketh strong her arms.

She perceiveth that her merchandise is good; her lamp goeth not out by night.

She layeth her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

She maketh for herself coverlets; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.

She maketh linen garments and selleth them; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

Strength and dignity are her clothing; and she laugheth at the time to come.

She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and the law of kindness is on her tongue.

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her:

'Many daughters have done valiantly, but thou excellest them all.'

Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her works praise her in the gates.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. When I was a junior in college, I took an honors seminar in feminism,

and The Feminine Mystique was one of the required readings. (That was in 1970-71).

At the time, I was looking at my post-college prospects and not liking them very much. Teaching high school in a small town and hoping some bland man with a comfortable income and nothing interesting going on upstairs would "rescue" me from permanent spinsterhood? No thanks! I certainly knew that I didn't want the life that my mother's generation had lived, devoting my entire life to housework and child rearing and having no money of my own.

Reading Betty Friedan's work inspired me to drop out of the seconary education program and aim for graduate school in linguistics. It's been a long circuitous route to where I am now, but I can't imagine how my life would have turned out if it hadn't been for feminism.

I haven't become rich, I've had some career disappointments, and even more romantic disappointments, but I'm still glad that feminism came along when it did.

I've just realized that two women who inspired me to change my life died this week, first Wendy Wasserstein, who inspired me to try to make it as a free-lancer, and now Betty Friedan, who inspired me to try a different path from the one all my older relatives had followed.

:cry:

[Raine]

36. R-I-P Betty

yet another one of the great ones leaving us. :cry:

[llmart]

37. Thank you Ms. Friedan......

for putting yourself at the forefront of the new wave of the women's movement and along with Gloria Steinem giving me, a woman who came of age in the 60's, the courage to see that I did not have to live my mother's suffocating life of having one baby after another and being stuck in the house all of her adult life. You will be truly missed.

[RazzleDazzle]

65. suffocating life

Oh God, yes yes yes. I shudder to think what my mother's life could've been like -- a very savvy, intelligent woman who got her GED when she was in her 40s (she'd dropped out of h.s. to work and help support her family during the Depression) -- esp. had she not been raised (acculturated) to think of herself as 2nd Class citizen, "helpmeet" and all that. That acculturation makes a big difference too.

Reminds me of one of the great, but rarely heard, mottos of early 2nd Wave Feminism: The biggest brain drain in the U.S. is down the kitchen sink.

For a little context, in case it's needed: the USSR was suffering a "brain drain" because so many of its brilliant scientists, writers, scholars, etc., were leaving, or trying to, benefitting the West greatly, and it was in the news.

[WhiteTara]

39. RIP and thank you for having

been in the world during my lifetime.

Betty Friedan helped shape my life.

[Catchawave]

40. Thank you for sharing....

:hug:

[World Traveller]

44. I met Betty Friedan in 1970

I was in high school and college in the 1960's. It WAS different then. I was intellectual kid whose sole goal in life was to attend, then later graduate from college, and become a professional. BUT there were so few options for women. Teacher, Secretary, Nurse, or Wife and Mother. Women lawyers, doctors, businesswomen were VERY few and far between. No women journalists or news anchors on TV. So few role models. But in 1968 I read The Feminist Mystique and so many of the things I knew were just plain wrong and unfair to women in a patriarchal society-there was someone saying it in print. What a validation!

In 1969-70, my senior year at the university, I became active in Women's Liberation. What a great experience, more validation of what I had felt, that the societal norms placed on women at the time were arbitrary and limiting.

In 1970, I atteneded a Women's Liberation conference at U of Minnesota and Betty was there. We formed semi-circles on the grass to "rap" informally and Betty was in my group. Betty was quite a bit older than most of us there, but she just joined in and became one of the contributors to our sharing of ideas and experiences, no "I'm a famous author" airs at all. It was a memorable afternoon.

[barb162]

52. I bet you never forget that. It must have been great

I really admire her; she saw a lot change in her life regarding the rights of women and she started it moving

[bumblebee1]

45. Thank you Betty

I read "The Feminine Mystique" a couple of months ago. I thoroughly enjoyed this eye opening book. It certainly took a lot of courage to shine a light on the "problem that has no name." The truth made men and certain kinds of women uncomfortable with the truth that was right before their eyes. Frankly, women such as Phyllis Schlafly et al should just say "Thank you very much" to the feminists instead of castigating them.

[DrZeeLit]

48. This wonderful woman changed my life. I feel a bit like I lost a friend.

I will never forget reading the Feminine Mystique. I could never return to my old ways, that 50's/early 60's woman, after that -- and I'm proud of my continually evolving life. She helped me become the "me" I am now. Thank the stars for you, Betty. Namaste.

[tomreedtoon]

49. My mom died the same day as Friedan, this Saturday.

Please don't think this is hijacking the thread, because as I prepare to go to her funeral, I can't help but compare these two women, pretty much of the same generation.

My mom was 91. She would have been angry at Friedan's politics. But surprisingly, she espoused her own kind of feminist ideals.

During the Great Depression she was the only person working in a household of six adults, keeping them alive with her paycheck. She had little entertainment in those years but dating a few men.

Her generation believed that women had to marry men of power and wealth, and they couldn't get it by themselves. On that regard, while her sisters' husbands were a politician for a major American city and a vice president of a good-sized corporation, my mom married a common Navy man, a sailor born on the St. Louis riverfront. And yet these two "established" women called on her and my dad whenever something was wrong at their houses - something their supposed sophistication couldn't fix, like a faucet or a TV set.

She scrimped, saved, and had four children. She did the books on loose-leaf notebook paper to squeeze everything out of our limited budget. She helped my dad (who had only a sixth-grade education) as he trained himself for his post-Navy career, as she helped us do our homework.

She slowly turned conservative as time went on. She turned her back on the Democratic Party - and to a degree I couldn't blame her, as the Party stopped addressing itself to common folks such as her family. And as far as feminism went, she didn't have any words for politically active women except "crazy."

And yet, with the perhaps grandiose assumption that both she and Ms. Friedan are in the same waiting line to get into Heaven, I like to think they might strike up a conversation, compare their lives and become friends.

[niyad]

51. I am so sorry for your loss--and what a lovely tribute to your mother.

thank you so much for sharing a part of your life with us. I can just imagine betty and your mom striking up a conversation, and it will be a wonderful one.

And remember that your DU family is here if you need us.

[RazzleDazzle]

66. Yep, just like I said

But first: my sincere condolences. She sounds like quite a woman, strong and beautiful.

Her generation believed that women had to marry men of power and wealth, and they couldn't get it by themselves.

SUCH an important point, and so well made. Here's the analysis that goes with it:

Women did have to find "a good man" in order to survive financially because opportunities for women were very closed and very narrow. Preventing women from being able to take care of their own survival needs is how Patriarchy kept/keeps women enslaved, keeps them from being independent and living fully adult human lives. It's ALSO -- and this is important -- precisely why there is or has ever been ANY sense of competition between women at all, especially for men. We were taught/acculturated to compete for the "good men" who could take care of us well, since we couldnt' take care of ourselves because the way society was rigged against us.

That competition for the good men meant we had to do a lot of things we might otherwise not have done:

* remain chaste since you were supposed to be a virgin when you got married, and if you had a "reputation," no "good man" would date you except to "have fun."

* Accentuate and work on physical beauty and downplay brains and talent and skills that might intimidate the "good men" we were competing for.

* Act like absolute ninnies to attract and keep a "good man." You should've read some of the women's magazines from the 60s -- they actively promoted codependent behavior. I remember trying to behave in those ways and found it somewhere between uncomfortable and repulsive to totally deny my own interests and wishes, as if I had no right to HAVE an opinion or desire. Examples: He always gets to pick the movie; always choose the least expensive thing on the menu; let him do all the talking; ask him about his interests and be positive and supportive; don't let him know you're smart or talented, esp. if you're smarter and more intelligent than he is; do everything you can to appeal to his precious (fragile) ego; on and on.

How profoundly sick it all was/is. And that's what they want us to go back to.

[suffragette]

53. It feels like the passing of an era

with the loss of Coretta Scott King and Betty Friedan so close together.
They both worked so hard and gave so much to better all our lives.

[woo me with science]

72. and Rosa Parks nt

[njdemocrat106]

55. "The Feminine Mystique" was amazing and radical for its time...

Betty Friedan helped kick-start a civil rights movement that was just waiting to be ignited, and it changed our culture for the better. I'm only 25 years old, but when growing up, it never crossed my mind that society, for a long time, considered men and women to be two separate animals (for lack of a better term), meant to perform different functions and roles in society according to their gender. My parents raised me with good Democratic values, which might have lead to my viewing genders equally, but I'm sure that the social climate that Friedan helped change with "The Feminine Mystique" influenced me greater. God bless Betty Friedan, and bless in turn, all women too.

[RazzleDazzle]

69. Right. The other spark

for that ignition, was The Pill. (And legal abortion came a little later, in 1972 IIRC). With the pill, women were suddenly freed from being enslaved to our biology -- a serious blow to Patriarchy, to be sure. I don't think the Women's Movement could have had quite the success it did without The Pill fueling our freedom.

it never crossed my mind that society, for a long time, considered men and women to be two separate animals (for lack of a better term),

Well, still does to a very large extent. Just consider, for example, the difference in denotation (dictionary meaning) between these two otherwise perfectly equal language constructions:

to mother a child
to father a child

Our language still proves that there are dramatic disparities between men and women vis a vis children and childcare. Our language will change when the reality changes sufficiently, OR we could assist in changing reality by insisting that our language be made more equal in this matter, this absolutely essential function in society. We could come up with a different term for what is currently meant by "to father," or we could make "to mother" mean give birth and use the gender-netural "to parent" for what "to mother" currently means. This would serve to equalize the two phrases and help foster greater equality in child rearing.

[Voltaire99]

56. RIP (nt)

[libodem]

59. She'll still be pulling for us on the other side

She'll be a very powerful spiritual force with which to contend.

[libnnc]

61. I am very sad to hear this but...

Personally having studied Friedan and the history of the Women's Movement in the US, I find it hard to ignore how cruel Betty was to lesbians within the movement. She wasn't the easiest woman to get along with according to many. Betty strongly disliked lesbians and tried to root them out of what she considered "her" movement. She used McCarthy-like tactics against gay women and treated her underlings pretty harshly as well.

Her's is a great loss that is true, however she was certainly no saint according to folks like Kate Millett, Rita Mae Brown and Karla Jay--women who worked behind the scenes and equally as hard as Betty--and recieved little to no praise from her for their efforts.

[Kerrytravelers]

62. Feminist Author Betty Friedan Dies at 85

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan



http://pageoneq.com/rssfeedstuff/index.php?id=5890

WASHINGTON - Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.

Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.

Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.





edited to add the NOW tribute:

http://www.now.org/press/02-06/02-04.html

In Memoriam: Betty Friedan
Honoring Groundbreaking Author, a NOW Founder and First President

February 4, 2006

Send in your own tribute to Betty Friedan
Today the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the nation celebrate the life and legacy of Betty Friedan, one of the founders of NOW and the modern women's rights movement.

"Freidan wrote The Feminine Mystique in 1963, and it opened women's eyes," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "Betty recognized a longing in the women of her generation, a longing for something more — opportunity, recognition, fulfillment, success, a chance to live their own dreams beyond the narrow definition of 'womanhood' that had limited their lives."

In June, 1966, Betty Friedan and 27 other women and men founded NOW, which has grown into the United States' largest feminist organization. Later that year she was elected NOW's first president, and her fame as an author helped attract hundreds of thousands of women to the new organization. Friedan and Dr. Pauli Murray co-authored NOW's original Statement of Purpose, which began, "The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."

Friedan was NOW's president from 1966 to 1970. During that time we lobbied the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce laws against sex discrimination in employment, and to ban ads that were segregated by sex. We forced airlines to change their policies that permitted only female flight attendants, and required them to resign once they married or turned 32. And in a key achievement, NOW convinced President Johnson to sign an Executive Order barring sex discrimination by federal contractors. In 1968, NOW became the first national organization to endorse the legalization of abortion.

[bliss_eternal]

63. I think seeing women put back years in this country

killed her, gave the woman a heart attack.

Bless her for what she did--may she rest in peace.

[Moderator]

64. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2086677

[Mr. Sinister]

70. the one time I met Betty

was at a Long Island July Fourth Barbecue in 1987. Someone pointed
her out to me bent over an open fire poking some grilling
sausages. It was such a great image Ms. Friedan poking those
roasting weiners -- it still makes me laugh. The world is
a brighter place for her time here.

[dryan]

71. The greatest tribute...

we can give to Betty Friedan is to see that the Equal Rights Amendment is finally passed.