An All-Star Died Today:Betty Friedan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Betty Friedan, whose 1963 book "The Feminine Mystique" helped inspire the modern feminist movement and who co-founded the National Organization for Women, died on Saturday on her 85th birthday, a relative said.
Friedan died at her home in Washington of congestive heart failure, just before 3 p.m.(2000 GMT), her cousin Emily Bazelon told Reuters.
"For Betty, feminism was an aspect of humanism. And one of her sons said this morning that she demonstrated that sheer intelligence could trump lack of intelligence," Bazelon said.
Friedan was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein in Peoria, Illinois, and attended Smith College, a leading women's college in Massachusetts, where she edited a campus paper and graduated with honors in 1942. She attended the University of California, Berkeley for a year before working as a journalist. In 1947, she married Carl Friedan, a marriage that lasted 20 years and produced three children.
"The Feminine Mystique" emerged from an article about a survey she conducted of fellow graduates at Smith and focused on the restrictions on women of the role of full-time homemaker. It became a best-seller and helped invigorate the women's movement and U.S. feminism.
Friedan co-founded the National Organization for Women, with Pauli Murray, the first African-American female Episcopal priest and served as its first president from 1966 to 1970.
She also helped found NARAL, originally the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws.
Her other books included "The Second Stage, It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement," and "The Fountain of Age."
She is survived by two sons and a daughter, nine grandchildren, a brother and a sister. Her funeral is planned for 11 a.m. on Monday at Riverside Funeral Chapel in New York.
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I guess I'm gettin' old, but it seems like my heroes are dying like flies during the summertime. I'm sad she's gone.
posted by benny06 at
Saturday, February 04, 2006
2 Comments:
I read the Feminine Mystique when I was 15 years old. I remember after reading it that I very seriously approached my mother who was a housewife and started asking her about the "problem that had no name". She assured me that she was perfectly happy to be a housewife and mother and didn't feel any need to have a career or go back to school.
Friedan I think may also have missed the fact that large numbers of women from lower social classes always did work and have careers.
One of the interesting things was always that some women did and some didn't feel the same sense of restlessness that Friedan identified, but in those days there was much less of a choice about it. It also is very much a choice for many people. There are many people who manage to have both but for many families there are serious tradeoffs.
I don't know that it's always a happy choice, particularly when it's not a choice at all because so many families need two significant incomes.
That said, it was Friedan who made America aware of the fact that there ought to be a choice.
By
Chancelucky, at 10:15 AM
You've raised some good points.
I think for me, I was changed by the women's movement during the late sixties early 70's, perhaps because I knew in my heart I would have to get an education to make any mark for myself. My mom had to work 1 and 1/2 jobs to support us when I was young. While I missed her being at home, I never doubted she did it for the love because also to keep her mind active. She's never said if she could have stayed home if she would have preferred it, or vice-versa. She got sick when I was 12 and she was "lost" for a long, long time.
Even when I've had a little extra money in my pocket, I could not and cannot imagine myself just being the "little person" at home. I work, and I need to work to be fulfilled. That was Friedan's cause too.
I remember a scene out of Terms and Endearment where Debra Winger goes to visit her friend in NYC and they ask her what she does. She says she is a homemaker and raises kids. The ladies' comment: "That's OK." I felt like the ladies at the time, but as I get older, I gain respect for those who can make tradeoffs and be the main parent at home.
By
benny06, at 12:22 PM
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