Betty Friedan

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Betty Friedan, 1960

Betty Friedan [ ˈfɹiːdən ] (born February 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois ; † February 4, 2006 in Washington, DC ; née Bettye Naomi Goldstein ) was an American feminist and publicist .

Life

Bettye Goldstein grew up as the daughter of the jeweler Harry Goldstein, an immigrant from Russia, and Miriam (née Horwitz) Goldstein in Peoria (Illinois) . The mother gave up her job as the editor of the women's section of a local newspaper to devote herself entirely to the family. In 1938 Friedan graduated from high school as the best of her class . She then studied psychology and sociology at Smith College , where she graduated summa cum laude . In 1942 she received a scholarship for a postgraduate year at the University of California at Berkeley , where she worked with the psychoanalystErik H. Erikson studied. After 1943 she worked as a journalist for various newspapers and magazines, from 1952 as a freelance publicist.

In 1947 she married the theater producer Carl Friedan († 2004). The marriage, which was divorced in 1969, has three children, including the theoretical physicist Daniel Friedan . Betty Friedan died of heart failure in her Washington DC home on her 85th birthday .

In 2016 an asteroid was named after her: (249523) Friedan .

plant

Friedan criticized the reduction of women to their role as mother and housewife. In her bestseller The Feminine Mystique (1963, German: Der Weiblichkeitswahn , 1966), which was translated into many languages ​​and sold over three million times internationally until her death, she pointed out, among other things, how the deeply rooted ideas of the tasks a wife and mother in the family z. B. were supported by advertising and thus the consumer goods industry. One of their concrete examples exposed the nonsense of the many cleaning products that are supposed to make women feel like they are experts in cleaning and play an irreplaceable role in the household. Her ideas were influenced by the psychologist Abraham Maslow .

In 1966 she founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), of which she was first president until 1970. Friedan believed that men should be actively involved in women's emancipation efforts.

Publications (in German translation)

  • The madness of femininity. A vehement protest against the ideal of women. Translator Margaret Carroux . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1966; New edition ibid 1975, ISBN 3-499-16721-2 ( The Feminine Mystique ); again 2016, ISBN 9783688100415 .
  • That changed my life. Contributions and reflections on the women's movement . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1977; ibid. 1982, ISBN 3-499-17651-3 (partial edition of It Changed My Life )
  • The second step. A new feminist concept . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1982, ISBN 3-498-02040-4 (slightly abbreviated version of The Second Stage )
  • Age myth . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995; ibid. 1997, ISBN 3-499-60345-4 ( The Fountain of Age )

literature

  • Judith Hennessee: Betty Friedan. Her life . Random House, New York 1999, ISBN 0-679-43203-5 .
  • Daniel Horowitz: Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique. The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism . Paperback edition. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 2000, ISBN 1-55849-276-3 .
  • Janann Sherman (Ed.): Interviews with Betty Friedan . University Press, Jackson 2002, ISBN 1-57806-480-5 .
  • Joanne Morgan: Social Change and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique: A Study of the Charismatic Author-Leader . Diss. Sydney 2006 ( online resource ).

Web links

Commons : Betty Friedan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Janann Sherman: Interviews with Betty Friedan . University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2002, ISBN 1-57806-479-1 , p. 14.
  2. ^ Lynne E. Ford: Encyclopedia of women and American politics . Infobase Publishing, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8160-5491-6 , p. 199.
  3. ^ Helen Rappaport: Encyclopedia of women social reformers . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2001, ISBN 1-57607-101-4 , p. 234.
  4. ↑ (249523) Friedan in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena , California (English)
  5. ↑ The Feminine Mystique | Summary, Significance, & Facts. Accessed August 25, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Friedan, Betty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goldstein, Betty Naomi (real name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION American feminist and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Peoria (Illinois)
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 2006
Place of death Washington, DC