Encyclopedia of World Biography on Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan (born 1921) is a women's rights activist, author of
The Feminine Mystique, and a founding member of the National
Organization for Women, the National Abortion Rights Action
League, and the National Women's Political Caucus.
Betty Friedan became famous with the publication of her first
book, The Feminine Mystique, in 1963. It became a national best
seller and propelled Friedan to a leadership position in the
movement for women's liberation. In that book Friedan identified
a condition she claimed women suffered as the result of a widely
accepted ideology that placed them first and foremost in the
home. Attacking the notion that "biology is destiny," which
ordained that women should devote their lives to being wives
and mothers at the expense of other pursuits, Friedan called
upon women to shed their domestic confines and discover other
meaningful endeavors.
Friedan’s early life helped her to understand the effects of the "feminine mystique." She was born Betty
Naomi Goldstein February 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of Jewish parents. Her father was a
jeweler, and her mother had to give up her job on a newspaper when she married. The loss of that
potential career affected her mother deeply, and she urged young Betty to pursue the career in journalism
that she was never able to achieve... Like her mother, she did some work as a journalist, but unlike her
mother she did not end her career to build a family. She married Carl Friedan in 1947, and during the
years that she was raising their three children she continued her freelance writing. After her husband
established his own advertising agency they moved to the suburbs, where Friedan experienced what she
later termed the "feminine mystique" first hand. Although she continued to write she felt stifled in her
domestic role.
In 1957 Friedan put together an intensive questionnaire to send to her college classmates 15 years after
graduation. She obtained detailed, open-ended replies from 200 women, revealing a great deal of
dissatisfaction with their lives. Like Friedan herself, they tried to conform to the prevailing expectations of
wives and mothers while harboring frustrated desires for something more out of life. Friedan wrote an
article based on her findings, but the editors of the women's magazines with whom she had previously
worked refused to publish the piece. Those refusals only encouraged her. She decided to investigate the
problem on a much larger scale and publish a book. The result of her effort was The Feminine Mystique,
which became an instant success, selling over three million copies.
Friedan began her book by describing what she called "the problem that has no name." In words that
touched thousands of middle-class American women, she wrote, "the problem lay buried, unspoken, for
many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a
yearning that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife
struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material ... she
was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question--’is this all?’"
With the publication of The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan rose to national prominence. Three years
later in 1966 she helped found the first major organization established since the 1920s devoted to
women's rights, the National Organization for Women (NOW), and became its first president. Under
Friedan's leadership NOW worked for political reforms to secure women's legal equality. The organization
was successful in achieving a number of important gains for women….
In 1970 Friedan was one of the most forceful opponents of President Nixon's nomination of G. Harrold
Carswell to the Supreme Court. She argued before the Senate Judiciary Committee that in 1969 Carswell
defied the Civil Rights Act by ruling in favor of the right of employers to deny jobs to women with children.
That same year, at the annual meeting of NOW, she called for a Women's Strike for Equality, which was
held on August 26--the 50th anniversary of the day women gained the right to vote. Women across the
country commemorated the day with demonstrations, marches, and speeches in 40 major cities. Friedan
led a parade of over 10,000 down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The following year Friedan was among the feminist leaders who formed the National Women's Political
Caucus. During the next several years she moved away from central leadership in the movement to
concentrate on writing and teaching. She wrote a regular column for McCall's magazine and taught at
several colleges and universities….
Betty died at her home in Washington, D.C. on February 4, 2006 of congestive heart failure. It was her
85th birthday.
Civil Rights Legislation and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as
race in hiring, promoting, and firing. The word "sex" was added at the last moment by Representative
Howard W. Smith (D-VA). His critics argued that Smith, a conservative Southern opponent of federal civil
rights, did so to kill the entire bill. Smith, however, argued that he had amended the bill in keeping with his
support of Alice Paul and the National Women's Party with whom he had been working. Martha W.
Griffiths (D-MI) led the effort to keep the word "sex" in the bill.
In the final legislation, Section 703 (a) made it unlawful for an employer to "fail or refuse to hire or to
discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his
compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual's race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin." The final bill also allowed sex to be a consideration when sex is a
genuine occupational qualification for the job. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to implement the law.
Subsequent legislation expanded the role of the EEOC. Today the EEOC enforces laws that prohibit
discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age in hiring, promoting,
firing, setting wages, testing, training, apprenticeship, and all other terms and conditions of employment.
Race, color, sex, creed, and age are now protected classes. The proposal to add each group to
protected-class status unleashed furious debate. But no words stimulate the debate more than
"affirmative action."
Affirmative action refers to both mandatory and voluntary programs intended to affirm the civil rights of
designated classes of individuals by taking positive action to protect them from discrimination. The issue
for most Americans is fairness: Should the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment be used to
advance the liberty of one class of individuals for good reasons when that action may infringe on the
liberty of another?
The EEOC plays a major role in dealing with this issue. Since its creation in 1964, Congress has
gradually extended EEOC powers to include investigatory authority, creating conciliation programs, filing
lawsuits, and conducting voluntary assistance programs. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not
mention the words affirmative action, it did authorize the bureaucracy to makes rules to help end
discrimination. Today the regulatory authority of the EEOC includes enforcing a range of federal statutes
prohibiting employment discrimination. Presidents also weighed in, employing a series of executive
orders. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered all executive agencies to require federal contractors to
"take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during
employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." This marked the first use of the
phrase "affirmative action." In 1969 an executive order required that every level of federal service offer
equal opportunities for women and established a program to implement that action. President Richard
Nixon's Department of Labor adopted a plan requiring federal contractors to assess their employees to
identify gender and race and to set goals to end any under-representation of women and minorities. By
the 1990s Democratic and Republican administrations had taken a variety of actions that resulted in 160
different affirmative action federal programs. State and local governments were following suit.
The courts also addressed affirmative action. In addition to dealing with race, color, creed, and age, from
the 1970s forward, the court dealt with gender questions. It voided arbitrary weight and height
requirements (Dothard v. Rawlinson), erased mandatory pregnancy leaves (Cleveland Board of
Education v. LaFleur), allowed public employers to use affirmative action plans to remedy specific past
discrimination that resulted in women and minorities being under-represented in the workplace (Johnson
v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County), and upheld state and local laws prohibiting gender
discrimination.
By the late 1970s all branches of the federal government and most state governments had taken at least
some action to fulfill the promise of equal protection under the law. The EEOC served as the agent of
implementation and complaint. Its activism divided liberals and conservatives, illuminating their differing
views about the proper scope of government. In general, the political liberals embraced the creation of the
EEOC as the birth of a federal regulatory authority that could promote the goal of equality by designing
policies to help the historically disadvantaged, including women and minorities. In contrast, political
conservatives saw the EEOC as a violation of their belief in fewer government regulations and fewer
federal policies. To them, creating a strong economy, free from government intervention, would produce
gains that would benefit the historically disadvantaged. Even the nonideological segment of the American
population asked: What should government do, if anything, to ensure equal protection under the law?
Gloria Steinem
Feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem was active in many liberal causes beginning in
the mid-1950s and founder of Ms. Magazine— the first national women's magazine run
by women. . She became a leading spokesperson for the feminist movement and
helped shape the debate over women's enfranchisement.
Travelling childhood: Gloria Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio.
Her father was an antique dealer and her mother was a newspaperwoman. She was
the granddaughter of the noted suffragette, Pauline Steinem. Given her family's
background, it was not surprising that she became a feminist and a journalist, but it
was by no means a straight journey for her.
When Steinem was young, she and her family spent summers at their resort in Michigan, and traveled the
country in a dome-topped trailer the remainder of the year as Leo bought and sold antiques from Florida
to California. Because the family did not stay in one place long enough for her to enroll in a school,
Steinem was tutored by her mother during those years.
When she was only 8 years old her parents divorced, leaving Steinem to live the next several years with
her mother in bitter poverty. Her mother suffered from depression so severe that she eventually became
incapacitated, requiring young Gloria to care for her. At the age of 15 Steinem went to live with her sister,
ten years her senior, in Washington, D.C., and from there she entered Smith College. When she
graduated from Smith in 1956 (Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude), she won a fellowship to study in
India for two years.
Developing a social conscience: Steinem's experience in India broadened her horizons and made her
aware of the human suffering in the world. She realized that the high standard of living most Americans
take for granted was not available to all. She commented at the time that "America is an enormous
frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people." She returned strongly motivated to fight
social injustice and embarked on her career as a journalist.
In 1960 she moved to New York and began writing freelance articles for popular magazines. She also did
some script writing for the popular television show That Was the Week That Was. One of her first major
assignments in investigative journalism was a two-part series for Show magazine on the working
conditions of Playboy bunnies. In order to do research for the article, Steinem applied for a job as a
Playboy bunny and was hired. She held the position for three weeks in order to do research. The articles
that she wrote as a result of her experience exposed the poor working conditions and meager wages of
the women who worked long hours in the lavish clubs where rich men spent their leisure time. Years later,
in 1970, she published a lengthy interview with Hugh Hefner, founder and editor of Playboy magazine. In
that dialogue Steinem debated Hefner on issues such as women's rights, the "sexual revolution,"
consumerism, and the "Playboy philosophy."
Journalism and politics: In 1968 Steinem joined the founding staff of New York magazine and became
a contributing editor. She established a column, "The City Politic," and wrote in support of causes on the
American left. During these years Steinem moved into politics more directly, working for Democratic
candidates such as Robert Kennedy and others. She also worked with César Chávez in his efforts on
behalf of the United Farm Workers.
Steinem's feminist concerns were first sparked when she went to a meeting of the Redstockings, a New
York women's liberation group. Although she went as a journalist with the intention of writing a story about
the group, she found herself deeply moved by the stories the women told, particularly of the dangers of
illegal abortions.
Gloria Steinem's commitment to the political causes of the New Left provided a natural path into her later
career as a feminist leader. During the years she spent establishing herself as a journalist she was
involved in the political movements that were stirring thousands of her generation to action. Out of the
civil rights movement and the movement against the Vietnam War sprang the rebirth of feminism, which
had remained dormant for several decades. Women discovered their organizing skills in the process of
participating in the political left during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and by the late 1960s they began
mobilizing on their own behalf.
The women's movement: By the late 1960s Steinem had gained national attention as an outspoken
leader of the women's liberation movement, which continued to grow and gain strength. In 1971 she
joined Betty Friedan and others to form the National Women's Political Caucus, encouraging women's
participation in the 1972 election. Their efforts drew attention to the issue of underrepresentation of
women in politics and the centrality of political issues for women's lives.
Ms.: In that same year of 1972 Steinem, as part of the Women's Action Alliance, gained funding for the
first mass circulation feminist magazine, Ms. The preview issue sold out, and within five years Ms. had a
circulation of 500,000. As editor of the magazine Steinem gained national attention as a feminist leader
and became an influential spokesperson for women's rights issues.
A best-selling author as well: Steinem continued to speak and write extensively. In 1983 she published
her first book, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. The book included her recollections of the past,
such as her experience as a Playboy bunny, and also highlighted the lives of other notable 20th-century
women. In 1986 she published Marilyn: Norma Jean, a sympathetic biography of the unhappy life of the
film star whom she knew personally. In her books Steinem continued to call for an end to women's
disadvantaged condition in the paid labor force, for the elimination of sexual exploitation, and for the
achievement of true equality of the sexes.
Sixty-five and still at it: Steinem was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1998, she was
inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame along with Hugh Hefner of Playboy
and Byron Dobell, former editor of American Heritage, Esquire, Life, and New York. On September 3,
2000, she married David Bale.
The Founding of NOW
Setting the Stage
In 1909, Emma Goldman wrote "A New Declaration of Independence," in which she declared the selfevident truth that all human beings "irrespective of race, color, or sex" are born with equal rights. About a
decade later, Margaret Sanger explained the "morality of birth control" in a speech so titled. By the postWorld War II era, such strong feminist voices were dwindling in number and volume; the momentum of
the feminist movement that won suffrage and expanded women's rights in the early 20th century had
waned. A negative media blitz proclaimed the death of feminism and celebrated the happy, suburban
housewife.
But with the rise of the civil rights movement, feminists again made their place in the political arena. The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to Congress, and feminists lobbied hard for the addition of an amendment
prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. After much debate, the Act was passed with just such a
prohibition in Title VII—added by a congressman who hoped to defeat the Act by including sex. But Title
VII was still a shallow protection for women in the workforce.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was formed in 1965 to enforce the Civil Rights
Act. Though future NOW founders Aileen Hernandez and Richard Graham fought hard as EEO
commissioners to enforce Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination, they were ultimately outnumbered
3-2 , and the EEOC decided in September of 1965 that sex segregation in job advertising was
permissible.
A month later, at a conference on Title VII and the EEOC, Dr. Pauli Murray—a law professor at Yale and
a member of the President's Commission on the Status of Women—denounced the EEOC and its stance
permitting Help Wanted Male and Help Wanted Female segregated job advertising. Betty Friedan, author
of the book The Feminine Mystique, immediately contacted Dr. Murray—one of many historic linkups that
led to a reemergence of the feminist movement in the U.S.
The Third National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women
Friedan and Murray were among hundreds of representatives at this conference in Washington, D.C., on
June 28-30, 1966. The theme was "Targets for Action," and many of the delegates wanted to pass a
resolution demanding that the EEOC carry out its legal mandate to end sex discrimination in employment.
They were told that they had no authority, not even to pass a resolution, but they were determined to take
action.
Betty Friedan attended the conference as a writer and observer and had been closely watching the efforts
of Graham and Hernandez to enforce Title VII. Friedan has said that both Commissioners were "privately
suggesting the need for an organization to speak on behalf of women in the way civil rights groups had
done for Blacks."
Determined to put the theme of the conference into practice, Friedan and others invited frustrated
conference participants to discuss alternative strategies. Friedan wrote the acronym N O W on a paper
napkin. Some 15-20 women assembled in Friedan's hotel room that night. One of the women, Rosalind
Loring, recalled the group's anger over what was happening at the conference, and how they could
change it: "There was a lot of feeling building in a lot of women then, and . . . they were more-or-less
ready." With time running out, more of the "dissidents" gathered during the final conference luncheon and
began planning the formation of the new organization.
Gene Boyer, recalling the hurried meeting over lunch, said, "Catherine Conroy pulled out a five-dollar bill
from her wallet and, in her usual terse style, invited us to 'put your money down and sign your name.'
NOW was a reality and I think we all felt somehow we had participated in a significant beginning."
Analoyce Clapp wrote, "28 women met to set up a temporary organization for this purpose: To take action
to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, assuming all the
privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."
A New Civil Rights Organization is Born
By October, some 300 women and men had become charter members. The organizing conference was
October 29-30 in Washington, D.C., but only 30 of the 300 charter members participated. NOW's flair for
making a few seem like many may have begun with this first formal meeting.
They adopted a Statement of Purpose with broad concerns, addressing all women and all facets of a
woman's life. It rings with a passionate commitment to "the worldwide revolution of human rights now
taking place within and beyond our national borders," and remains in many ways a timeless document.
"We debated virtually every comma of our Statement of Purpose, but were not divided on any of its
substance nor on the targets for action to which we committed ourselves in setting up the task forces,"
said Friedan, who had drafted the document.
The conference decided on a structure that "gives the basic power to the membership as a whole, in
annual national conferences... [and] between such conferences, the national board of 35, including the
five national officers, will be free to act, meeting every three months; between its meetings, the five
officers will be free to execute agreed policy." Virtually the same structure continues today.
The conference approved immediate action on Title VII enforcement efforts and authorized a legal
committee to take action on behalf of flight attendants and to challenge so-called protective labor
legislation. They formed task forces on issue after issue, and those task forces carried out much of the
early NOW agenda and activities.
In a 1966 report on the conference, Friedan wrote: "We wasted no time on ceremonials or speeches,
gave ourselves barely an hour for lunch and dinner...At times we got very tired and impatient, but there
was always a sense that what we were deciding was not just for now 'but for a century...' We shared a
moving moment of realization that we had now indeed entered history."
Title IX: The Higher Education Act of 1972 changed intercollegiate athletics
In 1972 the following sentence changed the face of collegiate athletics forever:
"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be
excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be
subject to discrimination under any educational programs or
activity receiving federal financial assistance."
This simple yet explosive piece was written as the preamble to Title IX, an amendment to
the Education Bill of Rights that completely changed the way Americans and athletic
departments across the nation viewed female athletes. Title IX was created to decrease the
amount of discrimination females encountered in the educational field.
Before 1972, the landscape for women in education and, in particular, athletics, was
barren, offering little variety and few opportunities for young women looking to pursue
athletics in college. Jack Patrick, a professor of the history of sports at Youngstown State
University, said that times were rough for women before 1972, even "dismal."
"Colleges typically had none (sports offered to women), or just one or two tokens," Patrick
said. "Many cited the stereotypical argument that women and girls were physically and
emotionally incapable of serious sports."
Title IX was molded years before President Nixon inked his name on the amendment. In
1965, Congress created Title VI, an amendment that was created during a time of upheaval
for the United States. Title VI aimed to abolish discrimination against on the basis of race
and country of origin in programs or activities that receive federal funding. Title IX took it a
step farther, adding women into the mix.
While Title IX covers many educational aspects, athletics have been scrutinized the hardest
by the watchful eyes of Congress due to the fact that athletics are extremely marketable.
Increased scholarships and increased funding are both direct results of Title IX.
While Title IX has proven good for the face of sports and athletics as a whole, it has come
with detractors and mild attempts to have the amendment changed.
In June 1975, only three years after the birth of Title IX, the state representative from
Michigan James O'Hara, introduced House Bill 8394. This bill states that the revenues
generated from one sport must first be used to support the main revenue generating
athletic teams (football, basketball). The bill died on the floor but left a huge door open for
attack on Title IX. Attacks on the House floor concerning the legality of Title IX were
spearheaded by the fiery Jessie Helms, who flat out declared Title IX unconstitutional.
However, Helms and a few other Title IX opponents had their arguments fall on dead ears.
While Title IX has given women a leg up in both athletics and education, not many
universities immediately implemented its regulations, and many were slow to follow the
rules set forth by the department of education. At one time, Title IX was questioned by the
governing body of athletics in college, the NCAA, which challenged whether Title IX was
legal. Once again, however, Congress had a quick retort and set a deadline of July 21,
1976, for public universities to comply with Title IX or begin losing state funding.
During the 80s, Title IX hung by a thread after a few very tense moments and heated
lawsuits.
In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that Title IX had only a limited scope of power and no
longer required athletic departments to create balance between the scholarships for men
and women. It would take nearly four years until athletics were once again included into
Title IX with the creation of the Civil Rights Restoration Act.
So where does Title IX stand today? Title IX stands on more solid footing that it ever has
with increased support nationwide and more people championing the advancements
women have made in both the educational and athletic fields. In 1999, on the twentyseventh anniversary of Title IX being enacted, President Clinton issued a press release
praising the steps taken to date.
"We celebrate what can be accomplished when we allow all Americans - men and women equal opportunity to be their best. By opening doors previously closed, Title IX provides
women and girls with quality opportunities for achievement in education - in academics as
well as athletics," the White House press release reads. "The U.S. athletes in the Women's
World Cup, currently being watched by millions of fans across the country, are shining
examples of the value of increased participation in athletics by women."
However, Clinton did note that there is still much room for improvement in "evening the
playing field."
"While we have come a long way, there is still further progress to be made in undoing
barriers to equal opportunity for women."
Those barriers still linger to this day. As recently as 2002, President George W. Bush was
urged to reexamine Title IX by various groups including a group representing wrestling
coaches and track coaches nationwide, whose programs have been hit hardest by Title IX.
Bush later decided against changing the legal wording.
Senator Tom Daschle was pleased with the president's decision and said it is a step in the
right direction.
"Anyone who believes that Title IX is no longer necessary hasn't looked at the scoreboard.
Women are still significantly under-represented in the number of athletic scholarships and
in the size of college recruitment budgets," Daschle said. "We cannot teach fair play if we
play favorites."
William Jenkins, a professor at YSU who teaches classes concerning women's history, said
that with the advent of Title IX there is a new sense of equality pervading both the
educational fields and athletic arenas nationwide, all thanks to the amendment.
"Now we have a notion that women can play any sport, as long as there is a significant
interest," Jenkins said. "The Higher Education Act of 1972 (Title IX) has broad implications
for women."