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Betty Friedan, feminist crusader for the women?s movement of the 1950s and 60s, died in her home on Feb. 4, her 85th birthday, of congestive heart failure.

Best known for her first book, The Feminine Mystique, Friedan is accredited by many feminists with igniting the spark that gave birth to the second wave of the feminist movement in the 1960s.

?In some ways that?s her major contribution,? Professor of women?s studies Wendy Kolmar said of Friedan?s The Feminine Mystique. ?It critiqued the lives of housewives and their confinement in the home, and their lack of purpose in life how smart women wasted their talents deciding which cleanser they were going to buy. She made many contributions, but The Feminine Mystique really caught everyone?s interest,? Kolmar said.

Friedan, a summa cum laude graduate of Smith College in 1942, made many contributions to the political, sexual and social liberation of women of the mid-20th century. In addition to her work as a writer and journalist, she also helped to found several feminist organizations, such as the National Organization for Women, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, known today as Naral Pro-Choice America, and the National Women?s Political Caucus.

?[Friedan] is complicated because her interests shifted and she did different kinds of things later in her life,? Kolmar said. ?[Her death] is an important moment, but in terms of the kind of reflection it provokes rather than causing feminism in the United States to be radically different in terms of day-to-day things.?

Though Friedan?s death went far from unnoticed on the Drew campus, no special events have yet been planned to commemorate her life.

?As far as I know there isn?t a public program planned, although I?ve been thinking about whether women?s studies might plan something,? Kolmar said. Though she admitted she did not yet have a tentative plan for an event, she assumes the event will somehow honor ?[Friedan?s] legacy, or educate people about how her contributions mattered.?

Kolmar distributed Friedan?s obituary, printed Saturday in The New York Times, to her history of feminist thought class.

?I handed out Friedan?s obituary and talked a little bit about her,? Kolmar said. ?I think that people will be able to better understand when we get to her. We read a big chunk of The Feminine Mystique in that class, and so she?s a key part,? she said.

Kolmar was not the only one to take notice of Friedan?s death. Many members of the Women?s Concerns club and residents of the Womyn?s Concerns house were also affected by her absence.

?I feel like the feminist realm has lost a pioneer,? Michael Bressman, a resident of the Womyn?s Concerns house said. ?I think that her gift is pretty much institutionalized in the movement. She gave it a lot of steam when it really needed it. She really did something great,? he said.

?[Her work] is not as pertinent today as it was then,? treasurer of the Women?s Concern?s Club Kim Buonarota said, ?But when she was active, she was one of the major voices who started the idea that women can have roles beyond the domestic sphere. She?s someone that we need to acknowledge and remember fondly,? Buonarota said.

Kolmar agreed with Bressman?s assessment of the impact Friedan?s death will have on the modern-day feminist movement.

?It does seem like a kind of watershed moment when Betty Friedan isn?t around anymore,? Kolmar said. ?It?s an interesting moment in that these women have been around as leaders for 30 or 40 years. They are now in their 80s, and aren?t going to be there much longer.?

?It?s interesting to wonder how that will change the landscape of feminist organizations and the people who are doing feminist work,? Kolmar continued. ?It changes what was a living activist movement in a way that it?s becoming history.?

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