Where is betty friedan from

Friedan, in her landmark book The Feminine Mystique, challenged the feminine mystique and the institutions which forwarded it. Despite being a young, intelligent woman building a career in journalism, like many women of her time, Friedan gave up her career once she married and had children. Her family had a comfortable, middle class life, yet, Friedan had an uneasy feeling of dissatisfaction in her role as a housewife.

She had achieved the conditions which should make her feel happy and fulfilled, but she felt hollow. Friedan, who had a background in psychology, deemed this dissatisfaction was caused by the feminine mystique, which failed to deliver the happiness and satisfaction it promised to women across America. To escape this cycle, Friedan urged women to pursue an education and meaningful careers. She pioneered the idea of women having both a career and a family.

This drastic reassessment of femininity was a key catalyst for second wave feminism, causing many women to question their role in their households and society. Friedancaused a paradigm shift in broader culture, and inspired many women to pursue education, careers, and other activities that made them feel fulfilled.

A daughter of Eastern European Jewish parents, Friedan began to experience discrimination from an early age, for her religion and her gender. Despite being a highly-intelligent young woman, Friedan recalls many instances where teachers, family members, and peers chastised her, denied her potential, and suggested that she focus on more traditionally female ventures than academia. Ignoring the critics, Friedan went onto graduate summa cum laude from Smith College with a degree in psychology.

In university, her political involvement blossomed, as the rise of fascism and the Great Depression ignited her interests in injustice.

She began writing for her school newspaper, where she advocated for labor rights and progressive politics. After her undergraduate degree, she went on to graduate studies at the University of California Berkeley to continue her education as a psychologist. However, she dropped out and moved to New York, where she began her career as a journalist, writing for left-wing outlets like the Federated Press and UE News.

A few years later, she married Carl Friedan and promptly had three children. Instead of feeling fulfilled by her new role, Friedan began to despair, as she felt her potential being limited. However, when her second child was born in , her employer refused to let her take a second maternity leave. Betty was forced to leave her job. She and Carl had a third child and moved from New York City to the suburbs. Betty started to feel depressed. She loved her children and husband, but she questioned her purpose.

She had been a star student at Smith, but she barely used her education as a housewife. She felt guilty about spending even a small amount of time on paid work. Something inside her said that her husband and children should come first.

Betty started to research the psychology behind these feelings and wondered if other women felt the same. In , she sent out a survey to nearly fellow Smith graduates. Many of them focused on marriage and motherhood: Is your marriage satisfying? Do you enjoy being with your husband more than anyone else? Does your husband complain about your housework? Do you worry about money? Do you have a career ambition? If your main occupation is homemaker, do you find it totally fulfilling?

Betty was both relieved and disappointed with the responses. The good news was she was not alone. The bad news was that many married women reported feeling unfulfilled, depressed, and that they were unequal partners in their marriage. By , she compiled her findings in a book, The Feminine Mystique. In it, she attacked what she saw as the myth of domestic happiness. She blamed educators, psychologists, advertisers, and the media for convincing women that their ultimate purpose was marriage and motherhood.

She also believed that society taught women to think there was something wrong with them if they wanted a career or personal life outside the home. She described the deep depression many middle-class women felt as housewives. She complained about the way society encouraged women to see college not as a step toward a career but as a step toward finding a husband.

Betty concluded that this situation hurt all of American society. The unhappiness these women felt hurt their marriages and their children. And their inactivity in the political realm prevented full gender equality.

Works Cited. How to Cite this page. MLA — Michals, Debra. Date accessed. Additional Resources. Related Biographies. Abrams is now one of the most prominent African American female politicians in the United States. Abigail Adams was an early advocate for women's rights. A progressive social reformer and activist, Jane Addams was on the frontline of the settlement house movement and was the first American woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Famed author Louisa May Alcott created colorful relatable characters in 19th century novels. Related Background. Lesson Plan. In New York, Friedan worked for a short time as a reporter. In , she married Carl Friedan. The couple went on to have three children: Daniel, who was born in ; Jonathan, born in ; and Emily, born in After the Friedans' first child was born in , Friedan returned to work.

She lost her job, however, after she became pregnant with her second child. Friedan then stayed home to care for her family, but she was restless as a homemaker and began to wonder if other women felt the same way she did — that she was both willing and able to be more than a stay-at-home mom. To answer this question, Friedan surveyed other graduates of Smith College. The results of her research formed the basis of her book The Feminine Mystique , published in , throughout which Friedan encourages women to seek new opportunities for themselves.

The book quickly became a sensation, creating a social revolution by dispelling the myth that all women wanted to be happy homemakers and marking the start of what would become Friedan's incredibly significant role in the women's rights movement.