What is Betty Friedan best known for?

Betty Friedan is best known for authoring *The Feminine Mystique* (1963), a landmark book that exposed the dissatisfaction of American housewives and sparked the modern feminist movement. The book challenged societal assumptions about women's roles and introduced the concept of "the problem that has no name."

What organizations did Betty Friedan found or lead?

Betty Friedan co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 and served as its first president. NOW became one of the most influential feminist organizations in the United States and remains active today advocating for women's rights.

Where did Betty Friedan receive her education?

Friedan attended Smith College in Massachusetts, a private women's liberal arts college founded in 1871 and member of the Seven Sisters. She also studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, an honor society for liberal arts and sciences founded in 1776.

What was Betty Friedan's professional background?

Friedan worked as a journalist, writer, sociologist, psychologist, and social activist. Her multifaceted background in social sciences and media enabled her to reach wide audiences with her feminist message and conduct research that supported her arguments about women's issues.

Betty Friedan

Q: What awards did Betty Friedan receive?

Friedan received the Humanist of the Year award from the American Humanist Association and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, an American institution created in 1969 that honors achievements by women.

American feminist writer and activist (1921–2006)

Person human Q234604

Facts

25 properties

Instance of: human
Sex or gender: female^[25]
Date of birth: February 4, 1921
Date of death: February 4, 2006, February 6, 2006^[10]
Place of birth: Peoria
Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Country of citizenship: United States^[13]
Occupation: journalist, writer, women's rights activist, sociologist, psychologist, social activist^[14]
Educated at: Smith College, University of California, Berkeley, Esalen Institute, Peoria High School^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]
Award received: Humanist of the Year, National Women's Hall of Fame^[22]^[23]
Notable work: The Feminine Mystique, The Second Stage, The Fountain of Age^[19]^[20]^[21]
Child: Daniel Friedan^[12]
Cause of death: heart failure^[28]
Languages spoken, written or signed: English^[34]
Described by source: American Women Writers^[33]
Family name: Friedan^[30]
Given name: Betty^[31]
Manner of death: natural causes^[32]
Member of: Phi Beta Kappa Society^[24]
Movement: abortion-rights movement, feminism^[26]^[27]
Name in native language: Betty Friedan^[35]
On focus list of Wikimedia project: gender gap on Dutch Wikipedia
P14541: 1dojmM
Place of burial: Sag Harbor Jewish Cemetery^[11]

Show all 25 facts +1

Residence: Georgetown Retirement Home^[29]

🏷️ Also known as

en Bettye Naomi Goldstein en Betty Naomi Goldstein en Betty Friedan ar بيتي فريدان cs Elizabeth Naomi Goldstein cs Betty Friedanová de Betty Naomi Goldstein de Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan de Betty Naomi Friedan el Μπέτυ Φρίνταν es Betty Naomi Goldstein fa بتی فریدان fr Betty Naomi Friedan fr Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan he בטי פרידאן he בטי פרידן hi बैटी फ्राइडन ja ベティ・フリーダン ko 베티 프리단 ko 베티 프리던

🔖 Identifiers · 127

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VIAF cluster ID: 49225729
Library of Congress authority ID: n50024063
GND ID: 118535528
American National Biography ID: 1603896
Angelicum ID: 28600
Arabic Ontology lexical concept ID: 151059685
BAnQ authority ID: 0000021496
BBC Things ID: d0986211-d709-4d44-86d5-2a12f4386210
BHCL UUID: 763eaa52-7d27-4c60-8707-cb0342d938ce
BIBSYS ID: 90127493
BNB person ID (OBSOLETE): FriedanBetty

Show all 127 identifiers +115

BabelNet ID: 00010167n
Babelio author ID: 64198
Bibliopoche author ID: 9305
Biblioteca Franco Serantini ID: 23824
Bibliothèque nationale de France ID: 11903613k
Brockhaus Enzyklopädie online ID: friedan-betty-naomi
C-SPAN person numeric ID: 878
C-SPAN person string ID (deprecated): bettyfriedan
CANTIC ID: 981058516629706706
CBDB.cz author ID: 2774
CONOR.SI ID: 67735907
Canadiana Name Authority ID: ncf10851785
CiNii Research ID: 1140845216780920448
CineMagia person ID: 796361
Collective Biographies of Women ID: 15042
DDB person (GND) ID: 118535528
DUC ID: betty-friedan
Databazeknih.cz author ID: 15587
Deutsche Biographie (GND) ID: 118535528
Discogs artist ID: 9110986
Enciclopedia Galega Universal ID: 128164
Enciclopedia delle donne ID: betty-friedan
Encyclopedia of China (Third Edition) ID: 351103
Encyclopedia of Jewish Women ID: friedan-betty
Encyclopedia of Marxism ID: people/f/r.htm#friedan-betty
Encyclopædia Britannica Online ID: biography/Betty-Friedan
Encyclopædia Britannica contributor ID: 5828
Encyclopædia Universalis ID: betty-friedan
Evene ID: betty-friedan-10907
FAST ID: 7909
FactGrid item ID: Merci
Find a Grave memorial ID: 13223958
Freebase ID: /m/01lk0y
GTAA ID: 100250
Goodreads author ID: 21798
Goodreads character ID: 61875
Google Arts & Culture entity ID: m01lk0y
Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana ID: betty-friedan
Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana ID (former scheme): 0028292
Great Norwegian Encyclopedia ID: Betty_Goldstein_Friedan, Betty_Friedan
Harper's tag: betty-friedan
IdRef ID: 026875306
Illinois Center for the Book author ID: 6565
Interlingual Index ID: i95169
IxTheo authority ID: 079335705
JRC Names ID: 61430
Jewish Encyclopedia ID (Russian): 14360
Jewish Virtual Library ID: betty-friedan
KBR person ID: 14423706
Lex ID: Betty_Friedan
LibraryThing author ID: friedanbetty
Libris-URI: khwzz1f32pmjbt3
LittleSis people ID: 146191
Los Angeles Review of Books author ID: betty-friedan
Lur Encyclopedic Dictionary ID: 02234/eu_f_1235/f1235
Met Constituent ID: 165663
Munzinger person ID: 00000017044
MusicBrainz artist ID: 283a2925-6b80-4c04-b4f2-f56759c85365
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NDL Authority ID: 00440189
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NLA Trove people ID: 970794
NLB authority ID (Belarus): SEK-216747
NLP ID: a0000002748511
NSK (VIAF) ID: 000140297
NSK ID: 981005786771209366
NUKAT ID: n97036025
NYRB contributor ID: betty-friedan
National Library of Brazil ID: 000210275
National Library of Chile ID: 000825747
National Library of Israel ID (old): 000049326
National Library of Israel J9U ID: 987007261465005171
National Library of Korea ID: KAC199609340
National Library of Latvia ID: 000020846
National Library of Lithuania ID: LNB:CdQY;=Bn
National Library of Poland MMS ID: 9810547163205606
National Library of Portugal ID: 133911
National Library of Spain SpMaBN ID (BNE v1.0): XX933595
National Virtual Library of India ID: 353757
Nationale Thesaurus voor Auteursnamen ID: 073904163
Notable Names Database ID: 865/000022799
Obálky knih ID: xx0002175
Open Library ID: OL385298A
Our Campaigns candidate ID: 109889
Oxford Reference overview ID: 20110803095835716
PUG authority ID: 100738
Parsifal cluster ID: 38097, 309586
Political Graveyard politician ID: freye-frimodig.html#988.33.62
Pontificia Università della Santa Croce ID: 29294
Prabook ID: 3736296
Proleksis enciklopedija ID: 57644
RERO ID (legacy): A000066581
RILM ID: 381291
SBN author ID: RAVV057808
SELIBR ID: 187503
SHARE Catalogue author ID: 125336
SNAC ARK ID: w6kt7fsq, w6gb22nq
SVKKL authority ID: p0105744-Friedan-Betty-19212006
Tabakalera ID: 68925
The Literary Encyclopedia person ID: 11685
Trading Card Database name ID: 160642
U.S. National Archives Identifier: 10582034
Union List of Artist Names ID: 500216837
University of Barcelona authority ID: 981058516629706706
University of Barcelona authority ID (former scheme): a1284136
Unz Review author ID: FriedanBetty
Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija ID: betty-naomi-friedan
Wellcome Collection concept ID: cug4zft2
WikiTree person ID: Goldstein-1414
Wolfram Language entity code: Entity["Concept", "BettyFriedan::gmcr8"]
WordNet 3.1 Synset ID: 11002446-n
WorldCat Entities ID: E39PBJjCKYpB64G9QBh9bdMXVC
Yale LUX ID: person/73002604-d82b-4871-9b9e-d03a4f70e178
Yle topic ID: 18-134145

Report an error or request removal Lineage (PROV-JSON)

🔗 Connections

Occupation 6

writer, journalist, psychologist, sociologist, women's rights activist, social activist

Educated at 3

University of California, Berkeley, Smith College, Esalen Institute

Award received 2

National Women's Hall of Fame, Humanist of the Year

Influenced 2

Rosie O'Donnell, Camille Paglia

Movement 2

feminism, abortion-rights movement

Cause of death 1

heart failure

Child 1

Daniel Friedan

Children (maternal) 1

Daniel Friedan

Country of citizenship 1

United States

FactGrid item ID 1

Merci

Founded entities 1

National Organization for Women

Given name 1

Betty

Instance of 1

human

Languages spoken, written or signed 1

English

Manner of death 1

natural causes

Member of 1

Phi Beta Kappa Society

Notable work 1

The Feminine Mystique

Place of birth 1

Peoria

Place of death 1

Washington, D.C.

Sex or gender 1

female

Works by author 1

The Feminine Mystique

Press Enter · cited answer in seconds

Summary

Betty Friedan was born on February 4, 1921^[1], in Peoria^[2]. She died on February 4, 2006^[3], in Washington, D.C.^[4]. She worked as a journalist^[5], writer^[6], women's rights activist^[7], sociologist^[8], and psychologist^[9].

Why It Matters

Betty Friedan has been cited as an influence by Rosie O'Donnell^[36], an actor^[37], b. 1962^[38], of United States^[39], awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special^[40], specialised in gun control^[41] and Camille Paglia^[42], an art historian^[43], b. 1947^[44], of United States^[45], awarded the Athenaeum Literary Award^[46], specialised in gender studies^[47].

Works attributed to her include The Feminine Mystique^[48], a written work^[49].

FAQs

Where was Betty Friedan born?

Betty Friedan's place of birth was Peoria^[2].

Where did Betty Friedan die?

Betty Friedan passed away in Washington, D.C.^[4].

What did Betty Friedan do for work?

Betty Friedan worked as a journalist^[5], writer^[6], women's rights activist^[7], sociologist^[8], and psychologist^[9].

Where did Betty Friedan go to school?

Betty Friedan was educated at Smith College^[15], University of California, Berkeley^[16], Esalen Institute^[17], and Peoria High School^[18].

What awards did Betty Friedan receive?

Honors received include Humanist of the Year^[22] and National Women's Hall of Fame^[23].

Who did Betty Friedan influence?

Betty Friedan has been cited as an influence by Rosie O'Donnell^[36] and Camille Paglia^[42].

🛰️ Living Edge · news-derived, source-cited

high ≥ 0.90 · emerging ≥ 0.65 · low below — calibrated against hand-rated truth (single-source .44 · two-source .62 · production-typical .70), so a band is a measurement, not a promise. High is rare by design: it needs both a supported assertion and an evidence sentence. A confirmed or contradicted chip is a Wikidata cross-check; no chip means Wikidata has no value for that property — the ordinary case here, and it says nothing either way. A confirm-only note marks a property whose check can never disagree (Wikidata's border and capital data is not exhaustive), so silence there is a limit of the check, not of the claim.

served-tier precision 80.7% [76.2, 84.5] · rated rows currently served n=342 · entailment-gated at 0.85 · measured 2026-09-29 · re-scored every 10 min, demoted at the half-hourly fold

Author The Feminine Mystique high0.9112 independent sources

evidence “Few, if any, feminist leaders since Betty Friedan, the author of the 1963 manifesto “The Feminine Mystique,” matched Ms.” newsindiatimes.com · read source

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

[2] ↑ Betty Friedan — place of birth (P19): Peoria. Integrated Authority File. Retrieved 2014-12-12. wikidata.org.
[4] ↑ Betty Friedan — place of death (P20): Washington, D.C.. Union List of Artist Names. Retrieved 2021-05-21. wikidata.org.
[25] ↑ Betty Friedan — sex or gender (P21): female. BnF authorities. Retrieved 2015-10-10. wikidata.org.
[13] ↑ Betty Friedan — country of citizenship (P27): United States. LIBRIS. Retrieved 2018-08-24. wikidata.org.
[12] ↑ Betty Friedan — child (P40): Daniel Friedan. wikidata.org.
[15] ↑ Betty Friedan — educated at (P69): Smith College. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. wikidata.org.
[16] ↑ Betty Friedan — educated at (P69): University of California, Berkeley. wikidata.org.
[17] ↑ Betty Friedan — educated at (P69): Esalen Institute. wikidata.org.
[18] ↑ Betty Friedan — educated at (P69): Peoria High School. Retrieved 2021-03-04. wikidata.org.
[5] ↑ Betty Friedan — occupation (P106): journalist. wikidata.org.
[6] ↑ Betty Friedan — occupation (P106): writer. American Women Writers. wikidata.org.
[7] ↑ Betty Friedan — occupation (P106): women's rights activist. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. wikidata.org.
[8] ↑ Betty Friedan — occupation (P106): sociologist. wikidata.org.
[9] ↑ Betty Friedan — occupation (P106): psychologist. Retrieved 2019-05-22. wikidata.org.
[14] ↑ Betty Friedan — occupation (P106): social activist. wikidata.org.
[11] ↑ Betty Friedan — place of burial (P119): Sag Harbor Jewish Cemetery. Find a Grave. wikidata.org.
[26] ↑ Betty Friedan — movement (P135): abortion-rights movement. wikidata.org.
[27] ↑ Betty Friedan — movement (P135): feminism. wikidata.org.
[22] ↑ Betty Friedan — award received (P166): Humanist of the Year. wikidata.org.
[23] ↑ Betty Friedan — award received (P166): National Women's Hall of Fame. womenofthehall.org. Retrieved 2026-10-04. womenofthehall.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[24] ↑ Betty Friedan — member of (P463): Phi Beta Kappa Society. wikidata.org.
[28] ↑ Betty Friedan — cause of death (P509): heart failure. wikidata.org.
[29] ↑ Betty Friedan — residence (P551): Georgetown Retirement Home. The Georgetowner. Retrieved 2023-08-21. georgetowner.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[1] ↑ Betty Friedan — date of birth (P569): February 4, 1921. Integrated Authority File. Retrieved 2014-04-27. wikidata.org.
[3] ↑ Betty Friedan — date of death (P570): February 4, 2006. Integrated Authority File. Retrieved 2014-04-27. nytimes.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[10] ↑ Betty Friedan — date of death (P570): February 6, 2006. Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 2020-01-24. wikidata.org.
[30] ↑ Betty Friedan — family name (P734): Friedan. wikidata.org.
[31] ↑ Betty Friedan — given name (P735): Betty. wikidata.org.
[19] ↑ Betty Friedan — notable work (P800): The Feminine Mystique. Open Library. Retrieved 2017-01-16. openlibrary.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[20] ↑ Betty Friedan — notable work (P800): The Second Stage. Open Library. Retrieved 2017-01-16. openlibrary.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[21] ↑ Betty Friedan — notable work (P800): The Fountain of Age. Open Library. Retrieved 2017-01-16. openlibrary.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[32] ↑ Betty Friedan — manner of death (P1196): natural causes. wikidata.org.
[33] ↑ Betty Friedan — described by source (P1343): American Women Writers. wikidata.org.
[34] ↑ Betty Friedan — languages spoken, written or signed (P1412): English. BnF authorities. Retrieved 2015-10-10. wikidata.org.
[35] ↑ Betty Friedan — name in native language (P1559): Betty Friedan. wikidata.org.

Inverse relationships (entities pointing at this one)

Inline context (facts about related entities)

[37] ↑ Rosie O'Donnell — P106: actor. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[38] ↑ Rosie O'Donnell — P569: b. 1962. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[39] ↑ Rosie O'Donnell — P27: United States. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[40] ↑ Rosie O'Donnell — P166: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[41] ↑ Rosie O'Donnell — P101: gun control. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[43] ↑ Camille Paglia — P106: art historian. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[44] ↑ Camille Paglia — P569: b. 1947. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[45] ↑ Camille Paglia — P27: United States. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[46] ↑ Camille Paglia — P166: Athenaeum Literary Award. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[47] ↑ Camille Paglia — P101: gender studies. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site
[49] ↑ The Feminine Mystique — P31: written work. Wikidata. wikidata.org. → on this site

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Betty Friedan. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/betty-friedan

MLA “Betty Friedan.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 3 Nov. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/betty-friedan.

BibTeX

@misc{4ortxyz_betty-friedan_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Betty Friedan}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/betty-friedan}, note = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}}

LLM prompt

According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Betty Friedan — https://4ort.xyz/entity/betty-friedan (retrieved 2026-11-03)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/betty-friedan · Last refreshed: November 3, 2026

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

4d ago · Nicereddy · 2026-10-31 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Discogs artist ID → 9110986

Claims rich → —

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19d ago · OKA bot bot · 2026-10-17 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Claims rich → —

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28d ago · Epìdosis · 2026-10-08 view diff on Wikidata ↗

NLB authority ID (Belarus) → SEK-216747

Claims rich → —

"/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ NLB authority ID (Belarus): SEK-216747, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/289805|batch #289805]]"
4w ago · Yuriklim · 2026-10-04 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Sitelink count → 70

Wikipedia languages → ['ar', 'arz', 'azb', 'bcl', 'bg', 'ca', 'ckb', 'commons', 'cs', 'cy', 'da', 'de'

Claims rich → —

"/* wbsetclaim-update:2||1|2 */ Award received: National Women's Hall of Fame"
11w ago · Mahirtwofivesix · 2026-08-19 view diff on Wikidata ↗

BabelNet ID → 00010167n

Arabic Ontology lexical concept ID → 151059685

"/* wbeditentity-statements-multiple-properties-update:0||4 */ added/modified IDs mapped to WordNet 3.1"
12w ago · Susmuffin · 2026-08-06 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Harper's tag → betty-friedan

"/* wbsetclaim-create:1||1 */ Harper's tag: betty-friedan, Matched to [[:toollabs:mix-n-match/#/entry/289910067|betty friedan (#289910067)]] in [[:toollabs:mix-n-match/#/catalog/7915|Harper's ta"
15w ago · Estevoaei · 2026-07-20 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Enciclopedia Galega Universal ID → 128164

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16w ago · Nyuhn · 2026-07-10 view diff on Wikidata ↗

P14541 → 1dojmM

"/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ QuickStatements 3.0 [[:toollabs:qs-dev/batch/40849|batch #40849]]: ZGBK ID"
20w ago · Jindřich Rubeš · 2026-06-12 view diff on Wikidata ↗

SVKKL authority ID → p0105744-Friedan-Betty-19212006

"/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ SVKKL authority ID: p0105744-Friedan-Betty-19212006, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/259494|batch #259494]]"
23w ago · Sj1mor · 2026-05-23 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Local thumb → —

Plaque image → Betty-Friedan-Ring - Neu-Ulm.jpg

"/* wbsetclaim-create:2||1 */ Plaque image: Betty-Friedan-Ring - Neu-Ulm.jpg"

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