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Quote by Betty Friedan

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

Quote by Betty Friedan

Author

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. more

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“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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.'”

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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.”

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Author:Betty Friedan

“When the Kerner Commission told white America what black America has always known, that prejudice and hatred built the nation’s slums, maintains them and profits by them, white America could not believe it. But it is true. Unless we start to fight and defeat the enemies in our own country, poverty and racism, and make our talk of equality and opportunity ring true, we are exposed in the eyes of the world as hypocrites when we talk about making people free - (Chapter 9).”

“Be as bold as the first man or [woman] to eat an oyster.”

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Author:Shirley Chisholm

“The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.”

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Author:Shirley Chisholm

“My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency.”

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Author:Shirley Chisholm

“Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men.”

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Book:Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition

Source: Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition