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life lived only for oneself does not truly satisfy men or women. There is a hunger in Americans today for larger purposes beyond the self. That is the reason for the religious revival and the new resonance of 'family.

Betty Friedan

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Betty Friedan
Age: 85 †
Born: 1921
Born: February 4
Died: 2006
Died: February 6
Feminist
Journalist
Psychologist
Sociologist
Writer
Peoria
Illinois
Betty Naomi Goldstein
Bettye Naomi Goldstein
Americans
Revival
Today
Truly
Satisfy
Reason
Beyond
Purposes
Self
Religious
Selfishness
Men
Purpose
Larger
Life
Family
Hunger
Doe
Oneself
Lived
Resonance
Women

More quotes by Betty Friedan

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My adolescence was quite miserable, when I look back on it, at least my early part of my adolescence. Because there was anti-Semitism in Peoria, and I didn't feel that when I was in elementary school.
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The feminist revolution had to be fought because women quite simply were stopped at a state of evolution far short of their human capacity.
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Just as darkness is sometimes defined as the absence of light, so age is defined as the absence of youth.
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When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman.
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Neither woman nor man lives by work, or love, alone ... The human self defines itself and grows through love and work: All psychology before and after Freud boils down to that.
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American women were frustrated in just the role of housewife - but they also managed to enlarge it. And they weren't just housewives, they were community leaders.
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Aging will create the music of the coming century.
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Most of the people in the workforce today will spend some years when they also have children and family responsibilities.
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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 she has borne leave home.
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The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.
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There is absolutely no evidence that it is harmful to children if their mother's health, well-being and autonomy and control of her own destiny is maximized by work outside the home.
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The media and even, to some degree, leaders of women's organizations don't understand that the women's movement is an absolute part of society now. It is in the consciousness, it is taken for granted. It is part of the way women look at themselves, and women are looked at.
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Regardless of your age, you will always have adventures, unexpected joys and unexpected sorrows.
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Diversity has got to be a part of modern feminism, and I think that my feminism is stronger because its an inclusive thing. I won't be backed into a corner that polarizes me against other women. And I wished they wouldn't be either.
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Protectiveness has often muffled the sound of doors closing against women.
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A good woman is one who loves passionately, has guts, seriousness and passionate convictions, takes responsibility, and shapes society.
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I never set out to write a book to change women's lives, to change history. It's like, 'Who, me?' Yes, me. I did it. And I'm not that different from other women. Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was the truth of every woman.
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When [the] life span of America women is approaching eighty years having kids is not going to take it up.
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Advice? I don't offer advice. Not my business. Your life is what you make it.
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Women, because they are not generally the principal breadwinners, can be perhaps most useful as the trail blazers, working along the bypaths, doing the unusual job that men cannot afford to gamble on.
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