At the time, Friedan was most known for her seminal 1963 feminist tract about the subjugation of married women, “The Feminine Mystique.” In 1970, 50 years after American women were awarded the right to vote, Betty Friedan delivered a speech that used her power as the founder of the National Organisation for Women to generate support for the Women’s Strike for Equality. Her speech was drafted on a plane from LaGuardia to O’Hare. She was born on Feb. 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois and raised in the city. Afterwards, Friedan quickly became a leading advocate for change in the status of women in the United States. Betty Friedan Judge Carswell and the "Sex Plus" Doctrine (1970) Frances D. Gage First Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association (1867) Matilda Joslyn Gage On the Progress of Education and Industrial Avocations for Women (1871) The Dangers of the Hour (1890) Indira Gandhi What Educated Women Can Do (1974) True Liberation of Women (1980) Judge Carswell And The "Sex Plus" Doctrine by Betty Friedan American Feminist, Author and Activist. When Betty Friedan, author of the best-selling “The Feminine Mystique,” stepped to the podium at a National Organization for Women convention on the evening of March 20, 1970, to deliver her final speech as NOW president, her words drew nationwide attention. "Betty Friedan, in 1970, raised the specter of a "lavender menace" in order to purge lesbians from the women's movement. Some 50,000 women were lead by Friedan in the march down 5th Avenue in NYC on 26 August, 1970. [note 33: It was largely reported that Friedan had remarked that lesbian feminism were a "lavender menace" that would hurt the women's movement. It was an ending speech, her March 20, 1970 farewell speech at the conclusion of her term as the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Feminist, activist, and author Betty Goldstein Friedan (1921-2006) helped found the National Organization for Women (NOW), and served as its first president (1966-1970). On August 26, 1970, Betty Friedan organized the Women’s Strike for Equality, where 50,000 feminists paraded down Fifth Avenue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 19th amendment and demanding more rights. By Mark Rhoads Betty Friedan was a controversial author who advocated a radical brand of feminism. Her first book, The Feminine Mystique, was published in 1963. Betty Friedan was the first president of the National Organization for Women. Her speech was drafted on a plane from LaGuardia to O’Hare. Friedan had called for the strike in a March 20 speech in Des Plaines, Illinois, and had planned the day's events with a coalition of … Two speeches by Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique" and first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), are examined in this paper. But Betty Friedan used what might have been a pro forma speech not to thank everyone and reflect backwards, but to make a call for action that astonished its hearers: She called for women to go on strike.