Betty Friedan Passes Away

[filkertom]

Betty Friedan, the writer and philosopher who essentially created modern feminism, has passed away on her birthday at the age of 85.

Comments

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

I had the honor of meeting and interviewing her when she spoke at Columbia University while I was a student there.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

Doesn't mention that she was a battered wife, but she didn't talk too much about it. Nice to see she outlived Carl, though.

[danceswithlife]

In a graduate class last quarter, a woman in her twenties commented that she had never experienced discrimination for being female, and added that she didn't understand why that was when she kept hearing so much about it. All three women in the class over 40 said, pretty much with one voice, "Because you're young! Be thankful to the women who came before you." In another class a few quarters earlier more young women were commenting that they didn't understand the old feminist insistence on being able to be a working mother. I pointed out that the reason it was such as issue for "old feminists" was because there was little or no choice available previous to that time. Mothers didn't work, or if they did it was extremely unusual and usually was regarded as some kind of a failure on their part, or their husband's part. Now women with the economic means to do so feel free to make a choice about it.