THE “MOTHER” of the second wave of the American women's movement, Betty Friedan was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Harry and Miriam Horowitz Goldstein. Friedan was interested in writing from an early age. In high school, she wrote for the school newspaper and founded a literary magazine that was distributed to her fellow students. After graduating summa cum laude from Smith College in Massachusetts with a degree in psychology in 1942, Friedan began graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. Upon graduation, she accepted the position of assistant news editor with the Federated Press, a left-wing news service.

In 1947, Friedan married Carl Friedan and gave birth to a son the following year. Friedan was fired from her job with UE News for taking maternity ...