The University at Albany
Department of History
presents  

Tuesday October 26, 1999 3:00 PM Campus Center 375 University at Albany Uptown Campus

Smith College Professor Daniel Horowitz will discuss his recent book, Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique, a work that looks at the personal, political, and intellectual origins of Betty Freidan's feminist ideas. Friedan is the author of The Feminist Mystique, the 1963 book that explored the roots of the discontent of housewives—"the problem that has no name"—and in the process helped launch modern feminism. The Feminine Mystique, along with the organization Friedan co-founded, the National Organization for Women (NOW), radically changed every sphere of modern American public and private life—from politics, to family dynamics, to daycare.

Horowitz challenges the notion that feminism emerged in the 1960s without any connection to prior organized attempts to improve women's political, social, and economic status. Contrary to the concept of a "sharp historical break between 1960s feminism and what went on before," Horowitz asserts that Friedan and other feminists, "were quite aware of women's issues and women's movements in the period before the 1960s." His book argues that part of modern feminism's origins are to be found in left-wing labor union culture and activism in the 1940s and 1950s.

Daniel Horowitz is Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Professor of American Studies and director of the American studies program at Smith College.