What Friedan gave to the world was, "the problem that has no name." She not only named it but dissected it. The advances of science, the development of labor-saving appliances, the development of the suburbs: all had come together to offer women in the 1950s a life their mothers had scarcely dreamed of, free from rampant disease, onerous drudgery, noxious city streets. But the green lawns and big corner lots were isolating, the housework seemed to expand to fill the time available, and polio and smallpox were replaced by depression and alcoholism. All that was covered up in a kitchen conspiracy of denial... [i]nstead the problem was with the mystique of waxed floors and perfectly applied lipstick.

Women's Strike for Equality
In 1970 NOW with Friedan leading the cause was instrumental in bringing down the nomination of G. will ideally come from mother and father. Influence
Friedan is credited for starting the contemporary feminist movement and writing a book that is one of the cornerstones of American feminism.

Friedan founded the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws but was later critical of the abortion-centered politicized tactics of many liberal and radical feminists. A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the 20th century. Friedan was also a strong supporter of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution that passed the United States House of Representatives (by a vote of 354-24) and Senate (84-8) following intense pressure by women's groups led by NOW in the early 1970s.