Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan was an American writer and activist whose book The Feminine Mystique (1963) helped spark the second wave of feminism in the United States. Drawing on interviews with educated suburban housewives, she described 'the problem that has no name': a widespread unhappiness among women told that fulfilment lay only in being wives and mothers. In 1966 she co-founded the National Organization for Women and became its first president. Her later books, including The Second Stage (1981) and The Fountain of Age (1993), turned to family life and ageing.

Key ideas

• The 'feminine mystique' is the belief that women find fulfilment only in housework, marriage and motherhood.
• 'The problem that has no name' is the emptiness felt by women denied an identity and purpose beyond the home.
• Women, like men, have a basic human need to grow through meaningful work and public life.
• Equality needs practical change in employment, childcare and the balance of work and family.

Major works

• The Feminine Mystique (1963)
• It Changed My Life (1976)
• The Second Stage (1981)
• The Fountain of Age (1993)
• Life So Far (2000)

In the Book corner

• The Feminine Mystique 1963 · Beginner
  A work of social criticism that grew out of a questionnaire Friedan sent to her Smith College classmates for their fifteenth reunion…

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