she sent out a questionnaire to her fel-
for women's equality, the nascent civil
low Smith alumnae for their 15th
rights era ignited it. It was a heady
reunion. Friedan polled them exten-
time in the country, a time that
sively on everything from reading
Friedan compares to the suffragettes
habits to birth control to the kinds of
and abolitionists a century earlier.
appliances that they used.
She.writes that "just as the first
When she tabulated the results, she
women's movement came on the heels of
found that a significant number of
the black movement to abolish slavery, so
those women were unhappily
did the modern movement we were
ensconced in suburbia; the happiest
starting come soon after the March on
among the respondents were those who
Washington for blacks and passage of the
did not conform to the stereotype of
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Liberation
the 1950s suburban housewife.
was in the air and it would have been
Armed with her data, she wrote a
surprising if women didn't apply it to
feature called "Are
themselves."
Women Wasting
Friedan founded the
Their Time in
National Organization
College?" It was
of Women (NOW)
summarily rejected
with the overriding goal
by the women's mag-
of gaining protection
azines for which she
for women under the
regularly wrote.
Civil Rights Act. When
But Friedan knew
she later felt that NOW
that she had identi-
had moved away from
fied something deep,
that more moderate
universal and until
platform of working for
that moment unspo-
gender equality in the
ken. She took her
workplace, campaign-
article to an editor at
ing for affordable child-
W.W. Norton who
care, achieving eco-
contracted with her
nomic parity and gain-
to write what would
ing reproductive free-
become the best-sell-
dom, she responded by
ing The Feminine
founding two other
Mystique.
"There's no such thing anymore as organizations refocused
Most of that book women's issues. Women's issues are on those issues: the
was written in the
National Women's
the world's issues," writes Betty
newly established
Friedan in her new memoir.
Political Caucus
Writers' Room at the
(NWPC) and the
New York Public
National Abortion
Library. There, Friedan poured
Rights Action League (NARAL).
through decades of women's maga-
Ultimately Friedan had little
zines to identify and define the femi-
patience for organizational politics and
nine mystique as "perpetuating the
returned to what she loved best —
inferior house-wife woman in
researching and writing. Four books .
Victorian Vienna, reincarnated in the
followed The Feminine Mystique,
glorified suburban housewife of post-
including The Second Gender, an analy-
World War II America."
sis of women's lives in the post-femi-
The book was an inspiration to
nist years, and The Fountain of Age, an
women and men alike who finally saw
examination of the mystique of aging.
that there were indeed choices for
Now a vibrant 79, Friedan currently
women and their families. Yet
heads up a public policy think tank
Friedan's professional success did not
supported by the Ford Foundation in
extend to her domestic life. At home
her new hometown, Washington, D.C.
she and Carl were locked. in a cycle of
Realizing that there has been a
physical and mental abuse, a circum-
"failure to mobilize the next genera-
stance that Friedan mentions matter-
tion to confront new threats and
of-factly in the book and has brushed
problems," she has taken on the chal-
aside in recent interviews.
lenge of updating governmental guide-
Carl Friedan has vehemently denied
lines for the family and the workplace
his former wife's allegations in various
In contemplating this remarkable
letters to editors as well as on his own
woman's life, another saying from the
Web site. In 1969 the Friedans
Talmud comes to mind: "Look ahead.
divorced, a decision that Betty said was
You are not expected to complete the
the most difficult she has ever made.
task. Neither are you permitted to lay
If the publication of The Feminine
it down." Betty Friedan continues to
Mystique in 1963 sparked a revolution
epitomize this dictum. ❑

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