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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

“A woman today who has no goal, no purpose, no ambition patterning her days into the future, making her stretch and grow beyond that small score of years in which her body can fill its biological function, is committing a kind of suicide.”

Politics Women Education History Feminism American Culture Social Science

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“There is something less than fully human in those who have never known a commitment to an idea, who have never risked an exploration of the unknown, who have never attempted the kind of creativity of which men and women are potentially capable.”

Politics Women History Feminism American Culture Social Science

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“For human suffering there is a reason; perhaps the reason has not been found because the right questions have not been asked, or pressed far enough.”

Suffering Women Feminism The Feminine Mystique The Problem Without A Name

Author:Betty Friedan

“Aging is not "lost youth" but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”

“Men weren't really the enemy - they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.”

Men Feels Made Suffering Culture Women Enemy Feminism Bears Diversity Fellows Victim Social Justice Masculine Inadequate Mystique

Author:Betty Friedan

“Men are not the enemy, but the fellow victims. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves.”

Men Real Women Enemy Fellows Victim Memorable Womens Rights Mystique

Author:Betty Friedan

“The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.”

Knows Men Way Persons Women Creative Equality Womens Rights Creative Work Mystique Women Rights Women Equality Women Right Feminine Mystique Women's Education

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying millions of American women alive.”

Women History Millions Alive Feminist Feminine American Woman Mystique Burying Lost Youth Feminine Mystique

Book:The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

“The problem that has no name-which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities-is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”

“It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.”

Women Easier Live Life Mystique Lost Youth 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

“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

“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 Years Movement World American Woman Feminist Home Mother People Thinking Housewife

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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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