Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to acknowledge the death of internationally acclaimed and renowned feminist, Betty Friedan, who died on Saturday, 4 February, which was coincidentally her 85th birthday. Betty Friedan is mourned by all women who know that their present degree of choice in life was hard won. She is mourned by those who know that the longest revolution, women’s fight for equality, is still half won. It is immeasurably sad that we have lost her guidance, though never her influence.

She was not the first feminist to put in words the question, ‘Is that all?’ when women reviewed their lives of household responsibilities and measured their satisfaction against that of men and the rules set by men. Great women throughout the ages have tried to make a world in which women could express their intelligence and personality in ways as free as men. After Betty Friedan came waves of women writers and scholars who analysed why women are not equally represented in making the decisions humanity must face. But Betty Friedan made a riveting and timely arrival in the early sixties, when the revolution had faltered after the great achievements of the suffragists. She was a housewife and mother who rose up from the community to provide a focus for the problems women were then struggling to face alone or in small, half-embarrassed groups.

Betty Friedan spoke directly to the grassroots because she was asking the questions of herself, as well as those she wrote for. She, too, was struggling to understand the dissatisfaction women felt when assigned to suburban ghettos and the boredom of those who determined that all their satisfaction should come from being wives, mothers and housekeepers. She wrote:

There was a strange discrepancy between the reality of our lives as women and the image to which we were trying to conform, the image that I came to call the feminine mystique. I wondered if other women faced this schizophrenic split, and what it meant.

And so I began to hunt down the origins of the feminine mystique, and its effect on women who lived by it, or grew up under it.

She found, among other things, impotent rage, depression, guilt and the recurring question, ‘Who am I?’, which came with the realisation of, in her memorable phrase, the woman’s forfeited self. There can be no doubt at all about the shock and recognition millions of women found in her words and ideas. Her book, The Feminine Mystique, was received quietly at first, but soon women realised they had been crying out for her message. Our mothers were the ones who felt inspired by Betty Friedan to examine their lives and the ideals foisted on them. I suspect—I know—that many of our mothers are the ones who today have a sense of personal loss.

Young women today in our society may need a determined act of the imagination to understand exactly what Friedan grappled with that led so many women to change their lives for the better and make a future in which these very young women have a sense of equality. I say ‘a sense of equality’ because real equality still eludes us. Betty Friedan not only gave new heart to the women’s struggle but also foresaw the backlash—a backlash which continues, fierce and unrelenting.

We would not be having the debate we are having now about women’s control of their fertility—the absurd denial to women of the drug RU486—if that equality had actually been achieved. There would be greater representation of women in this chamber, in the government ministry and in the higher echelons of business and industry if the longest revolution was actually complete. So I urge people, especially young women, to think about Betty Friedan’s legacy and how she inspired women to speak to each other about the issues that limit their lives and happiness. I hope that many others in this chamber tonight, men and women, will also pay their tributes, privately or otherwise, to Betty Friedan, who was a truly great woman.