Mourning Betty

Maggie says:
Betty Friedan, founding mother of modern feminism, has died. I am moved and saddened and rushing out to read classic Friedan.

Without Betty, we might still think our only value lies in the productive potential of our uterus.

Without Betty, we might think all we can hope for is mastering a recipe or cleaning a floor to perfection.

Without Betty, we might still walk around completely unfulfilled but unable to figure out what exactly our problem is.

The problem is that we cannot build our lives simply as a support system to another person. No one else can complete us; no one else should.

Thanks to Betty, we appreciate our potential as humans, not just wives or mothers; we stand as women, strong on our own; we live our lives as great vessels of opportunity and ability to change the world.

We are more than the kitchen, more than a delivery room. Thank you, Betty, for helping us see how beautiful choice is, and how fulfilling it is to create the life we dream about, whatever that may be.

"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, `Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children."