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She was convinced that this  ideology  her derisive term for the ideas be-
hind radicals words was a dangerous diversion.8 Women in Peoria
proverbial and real would never fully embrace the vision of these  crazies.
And it was her duty as the woman who had initially sold feminism to Peo-
ria, Friedan believed, to fashion a feminism that would continue to play
among ordinary women in her hometown who were not about to abandon
their husbands for vibrators.
As one of NOW s primary architects, Friedan wielded great influence
over the documents that shaped the organization s mission and agenda dur-
ing its formative years. During the years between the founding of NOW
(1966) and the publication of her third book, The Second Stage (1981),
Friedan s battle with radicals unfolded in slow motion.
If radicals were feminism s theoreticians and Gloria Steinem its media-
annointed spokeswoman, Betty Friedan was the women s movement s
consummate mainstreamer. Scholars have criticized Friedan for the exclu-
sivity of her focus and the derivative nature of her work. But in truth,
Betty Friedan was one of the most effective popularizers and savvy mar-
keters of the women s movement. The history of Friedan s life has been
written and rewritten; the significance of The Feminine Mystique is well
known. And yet, in all the commentary around her death in 2006, one
important legacy was completely ignored. In recent decades, younger gen-
erations of women have been replaying without necessarily realizing
it Friedan s battle for feminism s soul. Although younger women may
think themselves far beyond the plight of their movement mothers, in cer-
tain ways, as we ll see in part II, they are still very much in the thick of
debates similar to that which took place between Dunbar and Friedan on
a 1968 green room floor.
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76 SISTERHOOD, INTERRUPTED
THE MAKING OF BETTY FRIEDAN
What drove a housewife from Peoria to midwife and mainstream a so-
cial movement? In contrast to younger radical women, whose feminism
grew out of their participation in the civil rights and student movements
of the 1960s, Betty Friedan came to both feminism and politics from a
more practical and unassuming place. A prominent member of the older,
more liberal (or  reformist ) women s rights oriented branch of the move-
ment that sought to work within the existing political structure, rather
than overthrow it, Friedan s brand of feminism was deeply informed by the
liberal optimism of the early 1960s that characterized Kennedy s New
Frontier and Johnson s Great Society. Her passion for social justice and her
skills were profoundly influenced and shaped by her involvement in the
labor movement of the 1940s as well.9
Like many of the women who would eventually play a central role in
the establishment of the liberal, rather than radical, arm of the women s
movement, Friedan grew up in an era of democratic progressivism. The
daughter of first- and second-generation Jewish Americans, Friedan devel-
oped early on a commitment to issues of social justice and a profound
awareness of the devastating effects of anti-Semitism. Her family s collec-
tive experience, combined with the sweeping changes implemented
through Franklin Delano Roosevelt s New Deal, would deeply impact
young Betty s developing sense of the world and her role in it. Her early
concern for issues of social justice became the prominent theme of her
writing life. Friedan began her writing career as a labor reporter for the
Federated Press and the UE News, the official organ of the United Electri-
cal, Radio, and Machine Workers of America. At the time, the UE was
among the most progressive of the labor unions.
While personal and social history provided an entry point for her writ-
ing career, it was the study of psychology that offered Friedan an entry
point into politics. As a college student at Smith during the 1940s, Friedan
had argued that psychology (her major) provided the basis for a progres-
sive political philosophy. Combining democratic ideals with an optimism
rooted in psychological discourse, Friedan believed that psychology offered
02 siegel text 4/20/07 9:35 AM Page 77
THE BATTLE OF BETTY 77
the possibility that people could shape their own worlds. Later, as a grad-
uate student at the University of California Berkeley, she studied how so-
cial structures limited human potential. Influenced by the theories of
psychologist Abraham Maslow, she embraced the notion that, once basic
biological needs were met, the fundamental human drive was the need to
grow and reach one s full potential. Maslow s theories fueled Friedan s
growing belief that reigning definitions of femininity were antagonistic to
human growth.10
The Feminine Mystique began as an ill-fated women s magazine article
Friedan wrote following her fifteenth college reunion. In 1957 Friedan
conducted a survey of Smith College graduates. Mulling over her fellow
alumnae s comments about their education, their subsequent experiences,
and their satisfaction with their present lives, Friedan noticed a common
theme: discontent. In 1958 she submitted an article based on her findings
to a number of women s magazines, but editors rejected it. Friedan decided
to try another route and expanded the article into a book. In 1963, four-
teen years after the publication of Simone de Beauvoir s The Second Sex and
the same year Gloria Steinem published  I Was a Playboy Bunny in Show
magazine, Friedan s The Feminine Mystique became a smash success. It was
the bestselling nonfiction paperback of 1964, selling 1.3 million copies in
its first edition alone.
Friedan s famous articulation of what kept women down had little to do
with later New Left interpretations of power relations. In the final sentence
of the book, Friedan cast the revolution as a battle between the internal
and the external:  The time is at hand when the voices of the feminine
mystique can no longer drown out the inner voice that is driving women
on to become complete. 11 If only women would listen to their  inner
voices, Friedan maintained, self-realization, growth, and personal fulfill-
ment would be theirs.
As in radical feminist circles, the tension between change as internal
and change as institutional animated Friedan s writings throughout her
career. For Friedan in The Feminine Mystique, the problem (and hence
the root of the revolution) began in the psyche, while concrete and mea-
sured change was to be fought for in the outside world. In 1964 Friedan
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78 SISTERHOOD, INTERRUPTED
extended her position on the internal root cause of women s oppression
in a speech entitled  The Crisis in Women s Identity. Also that year,
around the same time as The Feminine Mystique appeared in paperback,
Friedan spoke at conferences held by government agencies and state
commissions on the status of women. In these talks, Friedan hinted that
women may in fact be oppressing themselves:  It is not laws, nor great
obstacles, nor the heels of men that are grinding women down in Amer-
ica today. Rejecting the more openly critical stance of many radicals,
who argued that the problem was, indeed, laws and men and systems and
institutions, Friedan reiterated that the cause of women s oppression was
an internalized and self-limiting blockage.
Friedan of course recognized that in order for women to achieve per-
sonal independence, society would have to change as well. No matter how
psychologically independent one was in one s mind, in other words,
women as a group would not see  real gains in status unless changes in the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]