Activism in America and around the globe draws on the strategies and tactics of many cultures and philosophies. But to the extent that a certain model has dominated in the American left, it’s the progeny of Saul Alinsky and the … MORE

Learn about American moms who, inspired by their children, took matters into their own hands to build a safer, healthier and more just world. Continue reading

Fifty years ago Betty Friedan shocked the nation with a best-selling book claiming that American women had been making themselves miserable by trying to live up to a myth —  that a normal woman wanted nothing more than to be … MORE

“We could not imagine ourselves beyond the age of 21,” Betty Friedan wrote in 1963, in a message that shocked — and liberated — thousands of American women. “We had no image of our own future.” The argument, of course, … MORE

Feminism has come a long way — it has absolutely revolutionized the way gender shapes our lives. The restrictions placed on my mother’s generation have little bearing on mine. But sexism hasn’t disappeared, it’s simply adapted to the successes of … MORE

The 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique provides an opportunity to assess the impact of the feminist movement in the United States over the past half-century. Women could not have entered the professional workforce in significant numbers without … MORE

“Far from having it all, most working women live in danger of losing it all,” writes activist Ellen Bravo. MORE

Of all the goals that feminists have been working towards for the past five decades, arguably they’ve made the most progress in the realm of sexual freedom. Contrary to popular belief, the sexual revolution was well underway when “women’s libbers” … MORE

Marriage is going the way of books. Which aren’t going anywhere. Let me explain. People have been marrying for 5,000 years. Throughout, what it means to be married has changed often, mostly in response to the economy. When we lived … MORE

Our time is now. I was 18 when I arrived at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts as a foreign student from Kolkata, India. One of the first books I read was The Feminine Mystique. Friedan challenged the domestication of women … MORE