In a clear-eyed yet obviously compassionate examination of Betty Friedan, the "mother" of modern American feminism,Horowitz reveals that his subject was far more worldly and politically concious than she indicated in her 1963 ground breaker.

Although some of today's generation-- whether feminists or not--may scratch heads and wonder why an intellegent articulate woman would intentionally disguise so much of her being while urging other women not to do the same, Friedan had no choice. In a nation somewhat tempered by fresh reccollection of the horrors of McCarthyism, red-baiting and subsequent discreditation of those tarred with the label still ran rampant.

Understanding that her grim findings would never receive the light of day in a culture still gushy-eyed over the assumption that every housewife was automatically happy or that option was the only choice for women, she had to employ crafty PR strategies to make the book appealing for original publication and promotion. Her "new idenity" made her a far more appealing media source than a "radical labor activist" since it allowed her to avoid being blamed for her own stigmatization as one of those supposedly unnatural career women whose unhappiness must be self-inflicted.

As a member of third-wave feminism, I profess to having little initial interest in Friedan or her methodology. Because I lived in a world where with comparatively many more choices/rights, was aware of her own internal predjuduces towards intra-feminist movement diversity and antagonism towards Gloria Steinem, I usually wrote off Friedan as an anachronism who although important, was somebody I could not relate to directly. Since I was not married and was childless, I could not see myself in the pages.

After this book, I not only can see why she repackaged herself, but realized that I would do exactly the same thing in her position. I still disagree with Friedan on her minimialization of other feminist leaders, but have a new appreciation of her work and relevance.

In this very readable book, Daniel Horowitz examines Betty Friedan's political and intellectual origins and finds good reason to question the widely held understanding that The Feminine Mystique was written out of the perspective and consciousness of a typical surburban housewife.

Professor Horowitz explores the life and thought of the young Bettye Goldstein as an undergraduate at Smith, and then as a labor journalist in the early and mid 1940's, and reveals her origins as a committed social critic and advocate with labor-left origins.

Professor Horowitz treats his subject gently and with respect. Betty Friedan disagrees with Horowitz's analysis, and this tension adds to the fun.

This is a collection of interviews of famous and not-so-famous women who have navigated their fiftieth birthdays. The women as individuals may be described as admirable, fascinating, witty, and even awesome (check out Dolores Huerta who has spent most of her adult life as a full-time human rights activist, living in poverty or near-poverty, while giving birth to 11 children--most of whom are now college graduates--and periodically catering to the demands of one of her three husbands). A more interesting aspect of this collection is what these women have in common. They each find this time in their lives more free, more focused on making a contribution to society, less focused on physical appearance and pleasing others, and less concerned (if not unconcerned) with having men in their lives. Tabra Tunoa, a jewelry designer and manufacturer, said, "You waste a lot of time in your thirties trying to look twenty and in your forties trying to look thirty"--one comment from among several in the interviews which imply that the forties are for clearning up the vestiges of denial of age, and the fifties are for embracing its gifts. Said Gloria Steinem, "I learned that to be defiant about age may be better than despair--it's energizing--but it is not progress." Rountree has done a fine job of asking the right questions, eliciting illuminating answers, and photographing 18 women who are worth hearing from.

The author of On Women Turning 50, Cathleen Rountree, is an artist, wrier and lecturer specializing in women's issues. Her book is made up of photos of and interviews with 18 women in their 50's and above. Some of these women are famous, some not, but all of them are fascinating.

I really enjoyed the portraits in this book because they do not aim at a Vogue-model, fake-beauty effect. Instead, they artistically reveal each woman's character, personality and wisdom. The prose narration is also excellent, because Rountree presents each woman's experience with growing older in her own words. The result is that this book reads like 18 short, interrelated autobiographies.

There aren't a lot of good books out there geared at encouraging women over 50 in a sexist society that tells women they are worthless without youth and beauty. Of those I've seen so far, this is the best written and most respectful of older women. As such, I recommend it not just to women over 50, but to the men and younger women in their lives who love them.

This is a courageous book written by a courageous woman. The story is of a life that continues to endure despite many hardships. If Betty Friedan had been less bright, one wonders if her life would have been easier. My personal favorite part in the book is that of her childhood. One can see her development as a feminist. When one is involved in raising daughters, I feel there is alot to learn in this book. As an aunt with four young nieces, I see the great responsibility one has in raising women to become leaders in the world today. That is why I recommend this book for library use.

Betty Freidan comes through clearly in her book---superbright, sensitive, vital, a woman who has taken great pleasure in men, children, writing, and the women's movement she sparked in l963 with the publication of "The Feminist Mystique." She's good company, as frank about her foibles as she is about her gifts and accomplishments. Unlike the extremists who entered the women's movement after her, she is balanced and moderate. "I've always thought of women's liberation as men's liberation as well." She says about what she might want on her gravestone, "She helped make a world where women feel good about being women and free to really love men." A recurring motif in her memoir is what she calls her "Jewish existential conscience", a feeling that she has to use her life to make the world better. (The "Christian correlation" might be, Jesus' parable of the use of talents.) She has indeed been a friend to women----and to men--everywhere.

A must read for those of us who were lucky enough to come of age in the 60s. Friedan left me with a profound sense of gratitude. Because of NOW's vigilance, I had the "right" to carry my daughter to term without being fired from my job as a high school teacher in 1974 . Because of the movement's persistance, I had the "right" to seek and obtain a job as a Superintendent of Schools in a market that was 90 percent dominated by men. Friedan's words inspire me to do more to improve conditions for children and families.

Betty Friedan wrote The Fountain of Age as a journey to redefine age, and to demystify the age mystique. Each chapter stands alone as an essay, exploring the many tribulations of old age. She allows us to follow her on this journey, which she starts at the age of 60 with her own fears and denial of aging, and ends with the celebration of age.

One of the main themes that run through this book is that age is perceived only as a decline or deterioration from youth. This assumption has become so pervasive throughout the professional community and society, that Friedan finds older people believing it to be true, having all bought into the decline model of aging. She writes each chapter challenging this assumption, pointing out the injustice along with the solution, usually through social-political change. This is reflected in such chapters as 'Denial and the "problem" of age', 'The Retirement Paradox', and 'A Paradigm Shift from "Cure"'.

In the 'Denial and "Problem" of Age', one of the things Friedan finds is that media consistently leaves out any appearance of older individuals on television and in advertisements saying "The blackout of images of women and men visibly over sixty-five, engaged in any vital or productive adult activity, and their replacement by the "problem" of age, is our society's very definition of age." She goes on to say, "Clearly the image of age has become so terrifying to Americans that they do not want to see any reminder of their own aging." She realizes the image of age was viewed as one of decline and deterioration, a mystique, not of desirability, but of trepidation. Growing old has almost become unspeakable, which stems from our obsession with youth.

Friedan takes on the ageist ideology of corporate America in the chapter 'The Retirement Paradox', saying at sixty-five or even before, older workers are forced into retirement, If not by law, then by social expectation, when many still want to work, and still have one-third of their lives still to live and be productive. Declaring this a great injustice to older workers, Friedan believes we don't have to continue to be structured in terms of lifespan of the past, suggesting that companies who are smart enough to adjust to the increasing population of older workers will be able to harvest enormous talent.

In 'A Paradigm Shift from "Cure"', Friedan believes the assumption of age being likened to sickness or debility keeps the medical community and even the elderly themselves from dealing with the symptoms of legitimate illnesses. The role of functional assessment is important in treating the elderly, saying, "A new version of the old-fashioned family doctor, trained to treat the whole person, is what is needed." She goes on to say "Doctors and nurses must go beyond medicine's two traditional goals: " to cure disease and to prevent disease." Their goal now has to be to preserve and improve the quality of life for the older person." For Friedan, the paradigm shift is one from the passive medical model of care of the elderly to actually controlling their own age.

Friedan undertakes issues that haven't truly been addressed before, so as a gerontologist this book is important to me. She opens our eyes to the social implications the decline model holds for our elderly, and the paradigm shift that needs to take place if we are going to look at the abilities and qualities that may develop or emerge in men and women in later life, and contemplate new possibilities for their use.

Going beyond, or the transcendence of age is how Friedan concludes her journey. Given the new possibilities old age holds, she believes the elderly have to be pioneers of a new kind of age. She found these people all across the country, applauding old age instead of dreading it. She sees old age as an opportunity for a new beginning, a new horizon, to do the things you never had the chance to do before. These people were continuing to evolve and grow into their new age. Those who originally were searching for the fountain of youth, found the fountain of age instead.

The fact that there is only 1 customer review on this tome of a book does not diminish its importance. It simply validates what the author is saying about people denying they're getting older. My zen book comforts me: For the ignorant, old age is winter; For the learned, it is harvest. Since this book was published Friedan has written yet another book, an autobiography. I am impressed with her vigor and intelligence.

I'm only forty and was drawn to this book because of what Betty Friedan has created for women in this century. I was delightfully surprised to find a book about "aging" was engaging for me. Her wonderful insights and perspectives have forever changed my outlook on getting older, and the examples and studies she cites have challenged not only my stereotypes, but allows me to challenge those of friends, families and doctors! This is a must read, REGARDLESS of your age! Perhaps even, the younger you are (to an extent!), the more profound these realities will be. I really enjoyed the audio book, which she reads herself, and plan to purchase the hard copy to have on hand to read again.

Betty Friedan was a pivotal figure in the "second wave" women's movement of the 1960s and 70s. The publication of her book, _The Feminine Mystique_ in 1963 catapulted her into international celebrity. The book was a catalyst of change. Fueled by an economic boom in which a single wage-earner could provide a satisfactory standard of living for an entire family, post World War II women had been pressured to abandon the workplace in order to bury their identities in housekeeping and motherhood.

Many middle class women felt stifled by the false feminine ideals and enforced domesticity of this era, and it was their frustration and anger to which Friedan's writing resonated. She was an educated Jewish woman with three children, a journalist, who had lived the suburban lifestyle, but who was propelled by her sense of injustice to speak to the larger world.

_It Changed My Life_ is a compilation of old and new writings, interviews, magazine articles, and recollections ten years after Friedan and a handful of other women founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in a Washington hotel room. This book was published in 1976, at a time when the original energy of the "second wave" women's movement had been submerged in pro-lesbian, anti-family rhetoric, and the futile struggle to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) had many people questioning whether feminism was dead.

Her exceptional and powerful writings prove Friedan to be an outspoken radical, a true leader of our times. She is a spokeswoman for the heterosexual woman who loves her children, but who also wants to be valued by the human race. Friedan spoke out against social and economic powerlessness for women, as well as false standards of "machismo" for men. Her goal was cooperation, not separatism.

For instance, here is Friedan's interesting definition of feminism:

"My definition of feminism is simply that women are people, in the fullest sense of the word, who must be free to move in society with all the privileges and opportunities and responsibilities that are their human and American right. This does not mean class warfare against men, nor does it mean the elimination of children, which denies our human future.

"It seems to me that _all_ the women's movement ever was, or needs to be, is a stage in the whole human rights movement - bringing another group, a majority this time, into the mainstream of human society, with all the perils and promises and human risks this involves. No more, no less. " (p. 317, paperback)

Some of the most compelling writing in this book comes from a column originally published in _McCall's_ magazine between 1970-73. "Betty Friedan's Notebook" is a readable, page-turning narrative of Friedan's travels around the globe to spread the world of the women's movement. She was a busy speaker, much in demand, a dynamic personality in the lecture hall. The accounts of the public's response to her message in places like Brazil and Italy is absolutely absorbing. And we get to see the "at home" side of Betty as well, as she integrates her experiences as a woman and mother into her public vision for change.

In conclusion, _It Changed My Life_ is an optimistic collection of journalistic writings calling for real dialogue between the sexes. Betty Friedan is a pivotal figure in the history of the Women's Movement in America, and her exceptional ideas merit consideration by anyone interested in women's issues. This book is a *must read.*

This is a well-documented and well-reseached book that discusses the problems faced by many American housewives. It was written in the sixties, when women were returning to their homes after the sexual revolution and the woman's right movement, when they were proudly filling in forms with "Occupation: Housewife" once again. These women were told by psychoanalysists, who mostly based their findings on Frued's theories, that a woman's sex life and happiness was ultimately found through living her life soley for her husband and children. The women Freidan studied and interviewed for this book were usually surburban wives, living in nice houses with their executive husbands who made a lot of money. These women had done everything right. They had married young: some barely finished or didn't finish high school, others dropped out of college, all for the goal of marrying their sweetheart and fulfilling the perfect image of the feminime mystique. These women had had many babies by natural childbirth, they sewed all their clothes and washed all their dished by hand, they had breastfed them all, they had doted on their childrens' and husband's interests and goals so much that they lost sight of their own. And even though these women were living by the perfect standards set by the "feminine mystique", they were dreadfully unhappy. So many were seeing pscyhoanalysts without positive results, so many were harboring resentful, depressing thoughts, and contemplating everything from an extramarital affair to suicide. And the most common problem of all came to be known as "chronic fatique syndrome". The women with this problem experienced listlessness and wrestlessness. They were always tired no matter how much they slept. Their joints and bones ached. They could not stayed interested in or concentrated on one subject for a long period of time. They were physically with their children all the time, but never really there in spirit.

And so, based on these findings, Freidan studied these women more, interviewed them more, and wrote The Feminine Mystique, in which she published her theories. I found most of her ideas to be extremely well thought out, and I can imagine how much the american housewife of the sixties, and later, really needed these ideas. For instance, Friedan comments on how "housework expands to fit the time available", noting that the house of the working women was always clean, even though she had a limited amount of time to clean it in, while the housewife who was perpetually cleaning and recleaning everything could never seem to "get anything done". Friedan also studied the ways in which these mothers affected their children, and most grew up to be dependant and irresponsible. The men looked for girls to marry who would take the place of their mother, who did everything for them, and the girls grew up to be stuck in the same trap as their mother, being a mother not only to their children but to their husbands as well, since their husbands had grown up under the feminine mystique and expected his wife to act as his mother had. Many times, the mothers try to live the dreams they never got fulfilled because of early marriage and motherhood through their children, and this is never good.

The most important thesis in this book, in my opinion, is the way in which Friedan pleads for women to become their own individuals. When a girl marries at seventeen, before she has even grown up herself, and has children of her own, her growing and learning process is stunted and she never finds out who she really is or what she really wants. When a woman waits on her family night and day, she loses such a big part of herself that she begins to feel like all she does for everyone else is useless and taken for granted. Freidan implores women to follow their own interests and not let the feminine mystique stunt their growth. She gives findings of women who finally went back to the desires and goals they had in their youth, as well as women who never left them but were the rare minority who combined motherhood with a career, and showed that they were no less women then the ones who stayed at home. In fact, having a life of their own improved the woman's marriage, family and sex life drastically when compared with the women whose worlds revolved around other people.

I found a few problems with Friedan's book and although they are insignificant in comparison with the book's positive aspects, they are worth pointing out nonetheless. Mainly, although Friedan is very advanced for her time in suggesting freedom and independence for women, she was very descriminative against homosexuals. She spent the first half of her book refuting Freud's theories about women and stating how he was a bad pscyhologist with unexamined and biased theories when it came to this area. However, she backs up her thesis about "weak" homosexual men being drawn to the love of other men because of the relationship they still desire with their mothers with all of Freud's theories. I don't think she should tear Freud's theories apart when it is in her favor and use the same person to back her up when she is talking about a different subject. Also her book is still sexist in the sense that she always expects women to do the housework and, if they choose to have a career, manage it along with the housework, when what she should do is suggest that if the man and the woman are both working, the man and the woman should both help out with the housework. However, since her views were so revolutionary at this time I am sure she did not want to press it by suggesting men actually do "woman's" work, since her very suggestion that women can and should do "man's" work was already taking things far.

On the whole this book was unquestionably fantastic. Although, fortunately, many women work today, some still face bias, prejudice, and descrimination from others, and this book goes to show that there is nothing wrong with a woman doing what she wants to do with her life just as there is nothing wrong with a man doing the same thing. And there are still some housewifes caught up in the feminine mystique who should read the book and find out why they are suffering the "problem who has no name". I feel that this book has done a tremendous amount of good for women throughout history after its publication, and it can still do a lot for them today...

This was one of the most inspirational books I have ever read. Although the book discusses the condition of the lives of women during the 40's, 50's, and 60's it makes a person examine the way they are living their life right now. It helps a person understand why they might be unhappy and explains the steps that can be taken to find happiness. This is no longer just a book for femininsts; it is now a book for both men and women and can help a person live a more full and honest life.

As a 19 year old female, I am fascinated by this book. I can now better appreciate the struggles of my grandmothers: both struggled with depression until they finally left the house and got a job. One was an R.N., and the other an interior decorator. This book reminds of the modern-day yuppie housewife who drives her SUV and lives vicariously through her children while Oprah tells her that she has the most important "job" and will avoid becoming depressed if she remembers her spirit each day. I believe that a woman CAN have both a family and a career. After all, men do. My mother has stayed home and worked, and as a kid, I prefer for her to work. She's happier, she's productive, and far less cranky. Freidan's book has shown me that I have every right to fulfll my potential as I start college, and show to younger girls that you don't go to college for your MRS. degree. I refuse to teach future generations of girls that they must choose between career and family. The Feminine Mystique should be read by every woman. Thank God we have come as far as we have, and so much of that credit belongs to Freiden herself.

This is a disappointing biography of the Second Wave feminist pioneer, Betty Friedan. Its author spends so much time making insulting and belittling remarks about Friedan's behavior, clothing, relationships, lifestyle, etc., that the reader begins to wonder if it is a deliberate and underhanded attempt to discredit the feminist leader. The biographer apparently spent a great deal of time interviewing all of Friedan's past acquaintances, trying to cull out unpleasantries and dirty laundry. Everything negative that happens in Friedan's lifetime is blamed on personal shortcomings of Friedan. This is not a credible biography. Instead, I would suggest reading Friedan's own recent memoir of her life, _Life So Far_. Anyone who has read any of Friedan's books (_Feminine Mystique_, _It Changed My Life_, _Fountain of Age_) and been impressed with this great woman's strong voice for women's rights, and her extraordinarily powerful messages, will have difficulty with the negativity that mars this second rate book. I really don't understand why a biographer with so little empathy for her subject spent the time to write this book. Friedan herself is a marvelous writer, and she is misrepresented and underrated here.

Twenty-eight years ago, the work of Betty Friedan changed forever, my view of my role as a woman in society. Reading Hennessee's well-researched and balanced account of Betty's life and times, allowed me to reconnect with a special time and era to all women (at least white, middle class women!) It is fascinating to know Betty with all her contradictions exposed; her feelings of being marginalized and excluded, her need for recognition and acknowledgement ( especially from men), and inability to connect with her own spirituality and aging. Equally amazing is the fact that Betty's Feminine Mystique took feminism mainstream, but failed to acknowledge patriarchy as the root cause of the unspoken dissatisfaction and yearning of American women. Also of interest are accounts of "behind the scenes" maneuvers at key events in the Feminist Movement, highlighing the rivalry between Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others. One can only hope that both women and men are learning new ways of being and can move to behaviors embracing a partnership model rather than a dominator model as we approach the new millenium.