It is better for a woman to compete impersonally in society, as men do, than to compete for dominance in her own home with her husband, compete with her neighbors for empty status, and so smother her son that he cannot compete at all.

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.