The Legacy of Betty Friedan

Though many women and girls may never hear her name, much less have an understanding of her life, all of us born into the sisterhood of humanity owe many of our freedoms, our rights, and our progress in the realms of social, economic and domestic liberties to this warrior for women's rights.

As a young woman she worked tirelessly for the forward movement of her contemporaries, leading the fight against gender inequality. As an old woman Betty Friedan continued to promote the cause of equality, for all citizens, as she labored on in her fight against age discrimination. She was dedicated to her beliefs, and outspoken in her stance against injustice, regardless of the forms it took.

Betty Friedan helped found one of the first major organizations dedicated to the rights of women, The National Organization for Women, which worked for political reform to ensure the rights of the female population in the United States. This organization was crucial in winning the fight against gender discrimination in the workplace, banning companies from recruiting or hiring only male or only female employees. Betty Friedan was the first president of this powerful organization, which lobbied for, and was instrumental in the addition of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Betty Friedan's achievements were many, whether testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, or having audience with Pope Paul VI, she never failed to speak out for the rights of women in the workplace, the political arena, the home, family, and even the church.

Ms. Friedan wrote 4 books on the subject of social equality. Her literary works are widely referred to as key instruments in the women's equality movement, and her fourth book "The Fountain of Age" was a leading source of information on age discrimination in the US. In addition she was well published in numerous magazines and periodicals across the country, and was also a columnist for Nationally known McCall's Magazine.

She taught at Temple University, Yale University, Queens College, and the New School for Social Research.

Today women have so many rights that others, like Betty Friedan fought to achieve. Because of her, and others like her, we have careers, and families, we vote and we run for office, we live and even age in a society that allows us much greater opportunities for success, happiness, and fulfillment, than our mothers and grandmothers experienced.

Because of Betty Friedan "the problem that has no name" as she called it in her first book, 'The Feminine Mystique', the problem that "lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women,"- what Betty described as "a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States." A problem that "each suburban wife struggled with alone", Betty wrote "As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material" the problem of inequality, of gender bias, of social stereo-typing that left each woman "afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - 'Is this all?", because of Betty, we can name the problem- and we can say with assurance to ourselves, as can our mothers and grandmothers, our daughters and granddaughters, "No. This is not all."