Betty Friedan

By Tessa Lovas 

Betty Friedan is best known for her book The Feminine Mystique. When considering second-wave feminism, you have to include Betty. She identified the unrest that many women felt in the fifties and sixties and gave it a name. Her contributions to the feminist movement are undeniable. 

Soon after her death in 2006, Sheila Rowbotham wrote an obituary for Betty Friedan.  Rowbotham, a British feminist, would have drawn inspiration from Friedan. In “Sheila Bowbotham, Women’s Liberation and the international Socialists”, David Renton says, “It is hard to separate the history and political activism of this generation” (para. 7). Rowbotham looks back on Friedan’s life and the sixties through the lens of political activism. An activist herself, it only makes sense. Obituaries are written to remember the accomplishments of the dead and to discuss their positive qualities. Understandably, much of the obituary is centered around Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, as well as her work with the National Organization for Women in the sixties.

In her obituary, Rowbotham writes a little critically about Friedan and her work: “Again she oversimplified and packaged neatly. She quoted selectively; American magazines in the 1950s were in fact more ambiguous about the housewife as they were keen to celebrate individual success stories…The Feminine Mystique also ignored the contemporary achievements of black women and did not touch on questions of redistribution of wealth. Her assumption was that work was necessarily fulfilling and she implied that the combination of child rearing and paid employment could be easily done” (paras. 15-16). Rowbotham probably has this critical eye because she considered Friedan to be a colleague: someone who was in the feminist fight with her. It’s okay to critque someone you respect, even when you’re writing their eulogy. 

She remembers the good and bad about Friedan, reminding the readers of her nickname “the mother of feminism” and how her form of feminism didn’t age very well, being described by Faludi as “stomping on the movement she did so much to create” (para. 11). Rowbotham frames the sixties around feminism and Friedan’s contribution. Friedan is described as “dressed carefully in frilly blouses and handled the news well” (para. 4). The National Organization for Women is presented as focused and serious in contrast to the grassrooms women’s liberation groups. Rowbotham frames these groups as problematic, taking away the focus from other women’s issues and causing groups like NOW to lose their credibility: “The frilly-blouse strategy was wiped out: from then on women’s lib and bra burning were twins as far as the media was concerned” (para. 5). Rowbotham talks about the sixties and feminism, and the reader can see some reflection on the left and new left feminists. The sixties were a time of radicalism, and those ideals did not age well. Friedan, and many others no doubt, became relics of the sixties: out of touch with the younger generation. 

Works Cited

Renton, David. “Sheila Rowbotham, Women’s Liberation and the International 

Socialists.” Lives; Running, 17 Sept. 2013, livesrunning.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/sheila-rowbotham-womens-history-and-international-socialism/.

Rowbotham, Sheila. “Obituary: Betty Friedan.” The Guardian, Guardian News 

and Media, 6 Feb. 2006, www.theguardian.com/news/2006/feb/06/guardianobituaries.gender. 

Olivia.toledo. “Todo Sobre El Legado Feminista de Betty Friedan.” Fahrenheit 

Magazine, Fahrenheit Magazine, 23 Mar. 2021, fahrenheitmagazine.com/arte/letras/todo-sobre-el-legado-feminista-de-betty-friedan.