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Betty Friedan “Remember the Ladies.” That is what Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, a delegate to the Continental Congress, as the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia to form a new nation in March of 1776. She urged: Be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the Husbands. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. The words of Abigail Adams, one of the earliest American advocates of women’s rights, were prophetic. Over the centuries, there is no one in the women’s movement more renowned or pervasive in her presence, or more long-lasting than Betty Friedan. Her bold novel, The Feminine Mystique, served as a catalyst and helped spur on the twentieth century women’s movement, which then led to the establishment of lasting benefits for women today. She is known as a feminist and an important figurehead for women, a great influence on women’s rights. Betty Friedan was born Elizabeth Naomi Goldstein on February 4, 1921, in Peoria, Illinois. Friedan, her older sister, Amy Goldstein, a