Betty Friedan

"The problem that has no name is eating the life of the female character."

"It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself."

"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' But as long as she views herself as an object, she has to take that question up through her life."

"Not sex, but education, is woman's best assurance of success in life."

"The mystique of feminine fulfillment becomes the final self-betrayal."

"Women who 'adjust' as housewives, who grow up wanting to be 'just a housewife,' are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the 1940s."

"When women stopped looking to men to complete them, the number of women who were satisfied with their lives skyrocketed."

"The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying millions of women alive."

"We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'"

"Aging in this country for women is not a normal process of living."

"The way for a woman, as for a man, to rise above their circumstances is through education."

"I began to understand that self-esteem isn't everything; it's not even the answer. It is a beginning."

"A woman cannot live entirely in the world of imagination; she cannot feed her family or herself by her imaginings."

"Women who have abortions are not less moral than women who have children as a result of unwanted pregnancies; they are simply women making responsible decisions about their lives."

"Shift your paradigm. See the word 'problems' for problems and see the word 'opportunities' for opportunities."

"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."

"It is no longer possible for women to ignore the importance of their lives."

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

"The feminine mystique has successfully defined American women as sex creatures."

"Each woman has to awaken to her own potential and her own power."

"Women cannot just accept the role that society has assigned them."

"We have buried our real selves in order to secure love and approval."

"Economic independence is the foundation of freedom for women."

"The problem has become clearer with every passing year."

"A woman in her time of life had another identity, a self."

"Housewives are not parasites. But the mystique makes them seem so."

"Women themselves have not yet really faced the fact that they accept a second-class status."

"A woman must refuse to accept a definition of her life based on her family relationships."

"The only way with any honesty is to admit that women are human beings."

"It's not enough to recognize women's rights in principle; they must be practiced in reality."