Betty Friedan Magnificent Disrupter

Finalist, 2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards in Biography * A New Yorker Best of the Week Pick
"A lucid portrait of Friedan as a bold yet flawed advocate for women's equality."-✅Publishers Weekly
The feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan (1921-2006), pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing. In this biography, the first in more than twenty years, Rachel Shteir draws on Friedan's papers and on interviews with family, colleagues, and friends to create a nuanced portrait.
Friedan, born Bettye Naomi Goldstein, chafed at society's restrictions from a young age. As a journalist she covered racism, sexism, labor, class inequality, and anti-Semitism. As a wife and mother, she struggled to balance her work and homemaking. Her malaise as a housewife and her research into the feelings of other women resulted in
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