When one begins to think about it, America depends rather heavily on women's passive dependence, their femininity. Femininity, if one still wants to call it that, makes American women a target and a victim of the sexual sell.
Betty FriedanRead
Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to become themselves?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the potential of women to thrive when they have the freedom to express their true selves.
Betty Friedan's quote questions the possibilities and capabilities of women when they are liberated from societal constraints and allowed to embrace their authentic identities. It suggests that true freedom enables women to explore their full potentials and achieve greatness beyond traditional roles.
Themes
WomenFreedomIdentityPotentialSelfLiberation
In practice
Example use cases
During a women's empowerment seminar, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of self-discovery.
More from Betty Friedan
All quotes βOver and over again, stories in women's magazines insist that women can know fulfillment only at the moment of giving birth to a child. They deny the years when she can no longer look forward to giving birth, even if she repeats the act over and over again. In the feminine mystique, there is no other way for a woman to dream of creation or of the future. There is no other way she can even dream about herself, except as her children's mother, her husband's wife.
Betty FriedanRead
Advice? I don't offer advice. Not my business. Your life is what you make it.
Betty FriedanRead
We need to see men and women as equal partners, but it's hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy!
Betty FriedanRead
No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor.
Betty FriedanRead
It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself. The freedom to lead and plan your own life is frightening if you have never faced it before. It is frightening when a woman finally realizes that there is no answer to the question 'who am I' except the voice inside herself.
Betty FriedanRead
Similar quotes
In my own case, I had to train myself out of that phony smile, which is like a nervous tic on every teenage girl. And this meant that I smiled rarely, for in truth, when it came down to real smiling, I had less to smile about. My 'dream' action for the women's liberation movement: a smile boycott, at which declaration all women would instantly abandon their 'pleasing' smiles, henceforth smiling only when something pleased them.
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WHEN AT 15, MY GIRLFRIENDS STARTED DROPPING OUT OF THEIR BELOVED SPORTS TEAMS, BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO APPEAR MUSCLE-Y, WHEN AT 18, MY MALES FRIENDS WERE UNABLE TO EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS, I DECIDED THAT I WAS A FEMINIST.
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I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men's clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.
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When God created man and woman, he was thinking, 'Who shall I give the power to, to give birth to the next human being?' And God chose woman. And this is the big evidence that women are powerful.
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For any of us in this room today, let's start out by admitting we're lucky. We don't live in the world our mothers lived in, our grandmothers lived in, where career choices for women were so limited.
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The more I think on the present condition of woman, the more am I oppressed with the reality of their degradation.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead