I didn't want to be in a situation where I was broader than the boys, which I was, in the academic world. Betty Friedan More Quotes by Betty Friedan More Quotes From Betty Friedan The situation of women and men is not comparable to worker-boss or black and white. Betty Friedan boss black-and-white men I can't point to any major episodes of sexual discrimination in my early life. But I was so aware of the crime, the shame that there was no use of my mother's ability and energy. Betty Friedan energy use mother It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself. Betty Friedan lost-youth live-life women You have to say no to the old ways before you can begin to find the new yes you need. Betty Friedan old-ways way needs Diversity has got to be a part of modern feminism, and I think that my feminism is stronger because its an inclusive thing. I won't be backed into a corner that polarizes me against other women. And I wished they wouldn't be either. Betty Friedan feminism diversity thinking I wouldn't be satisfied with a life lived solely on the barricades. I reserve my right to be frivolous. Betty Friedan barricades reserves satisfied Advice? I don't offer advice. Not my business. Your life is what you make it. Betty Friedan offers life-is advice Dominance is a burden. Most men who are honest will admit that. Betty Friedan dominance honest men Instead of fulfilling the promise of infinite orgasmic bliss, sex in the America of the feminine mystique is becoming a strangely joyless national compulsion, if not a contemptuous mockery. Betty Friedan sex america promise life lived only for oneself does not truly satisfy men or women. There is a hunger in Americans today for larger purposes beyond the self. That is the reason for the religious revival and the new resonance of 'family. Betty Friedan religious self men 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 twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban housewife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - "Is this all?" Betty Friedan wife house years All year there have been these cover stories that the women's movement is dead and about the death of feminism and the post-feminist generation of young women who don't identify with feminism - and then we have the biggest march ever of women in Washington. More people than had ever marched for anything - not only more women, but more people. Betty Friedan feminist people years There's no question that the black middle class has benefited greatly by the civil rights movement. But there is a large black underclass that does not have access to jobs. If there's no clear road to income and status except crime, we should expect social problems. You can't solve this problem without addressing the economic issues, and the same is true with gender. Betty Friedan issues class jobs He's a male chauvinistic piglet. Betty Friedan insult males piglet I won a really big fellowship to go straight on to get my Ph.D. And I went through agonies of indecision, and then I decided not to accept it. I just decided I didn't want to be an academic. Betty Friedan agony fellowship want The suburban housewife - she was the dream image of the young American women and the envy, it was said, of women all over the world. The American housewife - freed by science and labor-saving appliances from the drudgery, the dangers of childbirth, and the illnesses of her grandmother had found true feminine fulfillment. Betty Friedan envy grandmother dream Feminism or the family? Carried to excess maybe. I have insisted that women cannot be defined solely in those terms. But for a great many women - not all, because we are only beginning to realize and affirm the diversity of women themselves - choosing motherhood makes motherhood itself a liberating choice. Betty Friedan diversity motherhood choices I understood somehow my mother's frustration. And that it was no good not only for her, but for her children or her husband, that she didn't have a real use of her ability. Betty Friedan husband mother children Development can indeed continue beyond childhood and youth, beyond the seventies. It can continue until the very end of life, given purposes that challenge and use our human abilities. . . . In sum, our development does not necessarily end at any age. We can continue to develop into our eighties, even to our nineties. Betty Friedan childhood age challenges I'm my age and I feel glorious. Betty Friedan middle-ages age feels
