Almanac of Story Tellers: Betty Friedan

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, in podcasts, and in books. 

Today is a story of February 4th

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    It is the 35th day of the year, leaving 330 days remaining in 2023.

   

    On this date in 1921, the author and activist Betty Friedan was born.

    She told her stories about women, their histories, their wants, and their often unfulfilled desires. Her seminal work, The Feminine Mystique, is considered the bible of the modern feminist movement that began in the 1960s. 

    Using surveys she created, compiled, and reviewed from her fellow Smith College graduates, she wrote how women's lives were lonely and desperate, caught in the illusion they should be happy and dignified because they were meant to be wives and mothers.

    After graduating from Smith College, Friedan started working as a journalist, particularly for a number of labor publications. But after marrying and becoming pregnant with her second child in 1952, she was fired. She started writing freelance articles for several magazines. After compiling her survey, she began to write articles about it, and later expanded the project into a book.

    The Feminine Mystique was popular, selling more than 1 million copies. 

    A few years later, she helped to found the National Organization for Women, dedicated to seeking full equality for women in their work, family, and lives. She supported and worked for the Equal Rights Amendment, while continuing to write about feminist movements.

    Among those later books was The Second Stage, which expanded on the idea of full equality for women and discussed issues that affected the generation after hers. These included the social and political backlash to feminism, and the need for women to be better represented in all business fields, in addition to re-defining and recognizing the value of traditional women's occupations, such as teaching and nursing.

    She received several honorary doctorates, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

    She died in 2006.