Betty Friedan
Redefining Femininity
Intro
American feminist, journalist, writer, and activist Betty Friedan is one of the most influential feminist thinkers of the 20th century. She is most well known for her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique, where she dissects the myth of the 1950’s happy American housewife, and reveals how institutions of male power propagate a controlling and psychologically limiting view of women’s potential.
Referred to by some as the “mother” of second wave feminism, her ideas helped awaken middle class women to their psychological subjugation. Her work as an activistcreated many of the first women’s liberation groups, which overturned several regressive lawsand created awareness for injustices including abortion laws, unequal pay, and workplace discrimination.
While less of a household name than other feminists, Friedan’s work was incredibly influential in changing the paradigm and social contract of her time. Her innovative perspective provided a model for women to liberate themselves from societal expectations, and find fulfillment in education, politics, and a career.
Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to be themselves.
- Betty Friedan
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Dr. Sekoul Krastev is a decision scientist and Co-Founder of The Decision Lab, one of the world's leading behavioral science consultancies. His team works with large organizations—Fortune 500 companies, governments, foundations and supernationals—to apply behavioral science and decision theory for social good. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and is currently a visiting scholar at NYU. His work has been featured in academic journals as well as in The New York Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg. He is also the author of Intention (Wiley, 2024), a bestselling book on the science of human agency. Before founding The Decision Lab, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group and Google.
