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Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan Quotes

Writer

Betty Friedan was an American writer renowned for her groundbreaking work, 'The Feminine Mystique,' which had a profound impact on the women's liberation movement of the 20th century. Her writing exposed the dilemmas faced by women in society, the family, and the workplace, sparking a reevaluation of their status and rights.

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Famous Betty Friedan Quotes

“I wouldn't be satisfied with a life lived solely on the barricades. I reserve my right to be frivolous.”

Satisfied Reserves Frivolous Barricades

Author:Betty Friedan

“I was at a meeting two years ago in Beijing, and I passed a bunch of women who were marching in a protest. Their signs were probably saying something I wouldn't have agreed with at all. But I was so glad to see women marching. And it's happening all over the world.”

World Years Two Happenings Years Ago Meetings Glad Bunch Protest Two Years Disobedience Civil Disobedience Beijing Two Years Ago

Author:Betty Friedan

“It is better for a woman to compete impersonally in society, as men do, than to compete for dominance in her own home with her husband, compete with her neighbors for empty status, and so smother her son that he cannot compete at all.”

Men Home Son Husband Empty Competition Neighbor Dominance

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“Some people think I'm saying, 'Women of the world unite -- you have nothing to lose but your men. It's not true. You have nothing to lose but your vacuum cleaners.”

People Thinking Men World Loses Vacuums Cleaners Nothing To Lose True You

Author:Betty Friedan

“We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'”

Want Children Home Voice Husband My Children My Husband Want Something Feminine Mystique

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children.”

Ifs Want Feels Children Able Goal Husband Selfish Guilty Neurotic

Author:Betty Friedan

“Regardless of your age, you will always have adventures, unexpected joys and unexpected sorrows.”

Age Joy Adventure Sorrow Unexpected Inspirational Birthday

Author:Betty Friedan

“If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.”

Ifs Sex Justice Roles Movement Thousand Percent Social Justice Blame Divorce Obsolete Happy Divorce Marriage Divorce Feminine Mystique

Author:Betty Friedan

“A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex, but neither should she "adjust" to prejudice and discrimination.”

Should Girl Sex Women Justice Special Prejudice Social Justice Privilege Discrimination Womens Rights Mystique Feminine Mystique

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“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.”

Ifs America Sex Becoming Promise Infinite Bliss Feminine Fulfilling Compulsion Mockery Mystique Contemptuous Feminine Mystique

Author:Betty Friedan

“When one begins to think about it, America depends rather heavily on women's passive dependence, their femininity. Femininity, if one still wants to call it that, makes American women a target and a victim of the sexual sell.”

Ifs Thinking Want Stills America Depends Victim Sells Target Passive Dependence Femininity American Woman

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“A woman is handicapped by her sex, and handicaps society, either by slavishly copying the pattern of man's advance in the professions, or by refusing to compete with man at all.”

Men Sex Patterns Profession Copying Handicaps Mystique Handicapped Feminine Mystique

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“It is frightening when a woman finally realizes that there is no answer to the question 'who am I' except the voice inside herself.”

Voice Realizing Answers Frightening

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman.”

Enjoy Women Conventional Conform Femininity Being A Woman Lost Youth Feminine Mystique

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“Getting older is an adventure, not a problem.”

Problem Adventure Getting Old Getting Older

Author:Betty Friedan

“Advice? I don't offer advice. Not my business. Your life is what you make it.”

Life Is Advice Offers

Author:Betty Friedan

“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.”

Humans Doe Ends Use Age Purpose Given Challenges Ability Childhood Youth Development Aging Seventies Eighty End Of Life

Author:Betty Friedan

“You can show more of the reality of yourself instead of hiding behind a mask for fear of revealing too much”

Shows Reality Behinds Too Much Mask Hiding Revealing

Author:Betty Friedan

“If women’s role in life is limited solely to housewife/mother, it clearly ends when she can no longer bear more children and the children she has borne leave home.”

Ifs Children Ends Home Life Is Mother Roles Bears Housewife Roles In Life Women's Roles

Book:Fountain of Age

Source: Fountain of Age

“Dominance is a burden. Most men who are honest will admit that.”

Men Honest Burden Dominance

Author:Betty Friedan

“I never set out to write a book to change women's lives, to change history. It's like, 'Who, me?' Yes, me. I did it. And I'm not that different from other women. Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was the truth of every woman.”

Writing Book Different Speak Glory My Truth

Author:Betty Friedan

“Neither woman nor man lives by work, or love, alone ... The human self defines itself and grows through love and work: All psychology before and after Freud boils down to that.”

Men Inspirational Humans Self Grows Psychology Live By Before And After Alone In Love

Book:The Second Stage: With a New Introduction

Source: The Second Stage: With a New Introduction

“I'm my age and I feel glorious.”

Feels Age Glorious Middle Ages

Author:Betty Friedan

“Strange new problems are being reported in the growing generations of children whose mothers were always there, driving them around, helping them with their homework --an inability to endure pain or discipline or pursue any self-sustained goal of any sort, a devastating boredom with life.”

Children Self Helping Problem Pain Mother Women Goal Growing Generations Strange Discipline Endure Driving Pursue Boredom Inability Homework Mystique Feminine Mystique

Author:Betty Friedan

About the Author

Born: February 4, 1921
Died: February 4, 2006
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 124

Related Topics

Feminine Mystique Men Mystique Feminism Ifs Children Women Feminine Age Want

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Feminine MystiqueRelated source material

Fountain of AgeRelated source material

the year's most controversial bestseller the feminine mystiqueRelated source material

It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's MovementRelated source material

Life So Far: A MemoirRelated source material

The Second Stage: With a New IntroductionRelated source material

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