The only kind of work which permits an able woman to realize her abilities fully, to achieve identity in society in a life plan that can encompass marriage and motherhood, is the kind that was forbidden by the feminine mystique, the lifelong commitment to an art or science, to politics or profession. If divorce has increased by one thousand percent,… — Betty Friedan Copy Share
“It is wrong to keep spelling out unnecessary choices that make women unconsciously resist either commitment or motherhood--and that hold back recognition… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
What had really caused the women's movement was the additional years of human life. At the turn of the century women's life… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
Feminism or the family? Carried to excess maybe. I have insisted that women cannot be defined solely in those terms. But for… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
Chosen motherhood is the real liberation. The choice to have a child makes the whole experience of motherhood different, and the choice… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
It is easier to live life through someone else than to become complete yourself. — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
This idea that the employment of women, the movement of women outside the home into the work world, and their demand for equality is… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
A good woman is one who loves passionately, has guts, seriousness and passionate convictions, takes responsibility, and shapes society. — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
...women who 'adjust' as housewives, who grow up wanting to be 'just a housewife,' are in as much danger as the millions who walked… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself. The freedom to lead and plan your own life is frightening if… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
Protectiveness has often muffled the sound of doors closing against women. — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
“The problem is always being the children’s mommy, or the minister’s wife and never being myself.” — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
“The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled wit it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter… — Betty Friedan Copy Share
The man who is extremely and dangerously hungry has no other interest but food. Capacities not useful for the satisfying of hunger are pushed… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to become themselves? Who knows what women's intelligence will contribute when it can… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
If women’s role in life is limited solely to housewife/mother, it clearly ends when she can no longer bear more children and the children… — Betty Friedan Copy Share Image
