Betty Frieden - Wonderful Woman No. 104

Betty Friedan - 1921-2006
American Writer and Political Activist

Added to the album by Joanne, My Wonderful Cousin

I have stated many times that one of the most wonderful things about creating the Wonderful Women album and then coming to write about these women, is finding out more about women suggested by other people whom previously I knew little or nothing about. Betty Friedan is one such woman, suggested by my cousin, Joanne, a wonderful woman herself.

Betty's own achievements are fantastic in their own right but also it should be noted and considered that her actions and her writing have also been the catalyst for other women to go on to do wonderful things, to change their own life and to try to make changes in the world too.

I figured that she had a point. Women don't get the respect they deserve unless they are wielding male-shaped power; if they represent women they will be called "love" and expected to clear up after themselves. Betty wanted to change that forever.
Germaine Greer - Wonderful Woman No. 41

Betty wrote her first and most famous book, The Feminine Mystique in 1963. The book is often considered to be the starting point in a new wave of feminism in the USA. It focuses on the female role in society and the right to persue education, to go against expectation and to achieve careers without restrictions, act on desire and to be of equal standing to men.

One of the chief architects of the women's liberation movement of the late 1960's and afterward, a sweeping social upheaval that harked back to the suffrage campaigns of the turn of the century.
New York Times

Betty wrote a further five books with a feminist message, the last published in 2000.

Before writing her first book, Betty had worked as a journalist but had been dismissed from her job due to the fact she was pregnant.

In 1966, Betty founded the National Organization for Women in the USA. The group became lobbyists for equality for women and were leaders in the campaign for women's equal pay, equal rights within the workplace and forced the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to start working on claims filed involving sex discrimination, something the commission had previously ignored. In 1970, Betty organised a national Women's Strike for Equality, and led a march of 50,000 women demanding civil rights granting women equal standing in the workplace.

In conclusion, a woman who fiercely fought against injustice, who helped make America a fairer and more equal place for women. Inspiringly wonderful.

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 is, a longing] 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 … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — 'Is this all?
Betty Friedan

>>>> I must apologise for the lack of recent entries. This is down to technical problems and not a lack of women to write about, there are more than 100 more waiting in the album. I will continue to write as frequently as possible! >>>>