Life So Far: A Memoir

By Betty Friedan

Book Overview

It was Betty Freidan herself, in Life So Far, who spoke about her life and career and told us what it was all like from the inside. With the unsparing frankness that made The Feminine Mystique one of the most influential books of the century, Friedan looked back and told us what it took, and what it cost, to change the world. She took us on an intimate journey through her life, from her lonely childhood to the founding of NOW and her brilliant, contentious, and brave leadership of the Movement.

Life So Far chronicles the secret underground of women in Washington in the early sixties who drafted Friedan to spearhead an "NAACP" for women, and the daring of many who spoke out against discrimination. Friedan recounts the political infighting and dirty tricks that occurred within the Movement as well as the forces that tried to destroy it and how hard she fought to keep the Movement practical and free of extremism, including "man-hating." Friedan is equally frank about her twenty-two-year marriage to an advertising entrepreneur, which deteriorated into physical abuse. They later reconciled as friends.

Life So Far is forthright, full of stories and larger-than-life characters, and it is the scope of Friedan's vision and achievements that makes her memoir so important and compelling.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743299868
• ISBN13: 9780743299862
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Look Back

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.

a remarkable woman's journey

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.

Must Read

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.

A Must Read

In college I read The Feminine Mystique. How wonderful to read Betty Friedan's intimate account of her life and the struggle for women's rights so far. Her style makes the reader feel she is having a chat. Now I want to read everything else she has written.