Betty Friedan

(noun)

(1921 – 2006) An American writer, activist, and feminist; a leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States and author of The Feminine Mystique, which is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the 20th century.

Related Terms

Examples of Betty Friedan in the following topics:

  • The New Wave of Feminism

    • In 1963, writer and feminist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in which she contested the post-World War II belief that it was women’s destiny to marry and bear children.
    • Friedan’s book was a best-seller and began to raise the consciousness of many women who agreed that homemaking in the suburbs sapped them of their individualism and left them unsatisfied.
    • In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed by 28 women—among them Betty Friedan—and proceeded to set an agenda for the feminist movement.
    • National Organization for Women (NOW) founder and president Betty Friedan; NOW co-chair and Washington, D.C., lobbyist Barbara Ireton; and feminist attorney Marguerite Rawalt.
    • Betty Friedan, American feminist and writer, author of "The Feminine Mystique"

  • Second-Wave Feminism

    • Beauvoir's book influenced Betty Friedan, who in her 1963 bestselling book The Feminine Mystique explicitly objected to the mainstream media image of women, stating that placing women at home limited their possibilities, and wasted talent and potential.
    • In 1966, Friedan joined other women and men to found the National Organization for Women (NOW).

  • The Transition to Peacetime

    • In 1963, Betty Friedan publisher her book The Feminine Mystique which strongly criticized the role of women during the postwar years and was a best-seller and a major catalyst of the women's liberation movement.

  • The Revival of Domesticity and Religion

    • In 1963, Betty Friedan publisher her book The Feminine Mystique which strongly criticized the role of women during the postwar years and was a best-seller and a major catalyst of the women's liberation movement.

  • Conclusion: WWII and the U.S.

    • In 1963, Betty Friedan publisher her book The Feminine Mystique which strongly criticized the role of women during the postwar years and was a best-seller and a major catalyst of the women's liberation movement.

  • Conclusion: Post-War America

    • In 1963, Betty Friedan publisher her book The Feminine Mystique which strongly criticized the role of women during the postwar years and was a best-seller and a major catalyst of the new wave of women's liberation movement.

  • Jefferson, Slavery, and Race

    • As a widower, his father-in-law John Wayles had taken his mulatto slave Betty Hemings as a concubine and had six children with her during his last 12 years.
    • Betty Hemings' descendants were trained and assigned to domestic service and highly skilled artisan positions at Monticello; none worked in the fields.

  • The Ford Inauguration

    • Gerald and Betty Ford with the President and First Lady Pat Nixon after President Nixon nominated Ford to be Vice President, October 13, 1973.

  • The Salem Witch Trials

    • In Salem Village, in February 1692, Betty Parris, age 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, began to have fits in which they screamed, threw things, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions.