I read a David Horowitz column recently that says Betty Friedan (author of The Feminine Mystique) was a Communist. The source he claimed for this was a book by Daniel Horowitz, apparently no relation to David, called Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique. However, the facts in the column seemed to be a bit sketchy; apparently Friedan wrote for some labor journals that were Communist-infiltrated, but I saw no mention of her actually joining the Communist party, operating as a party agent, or declaring herself a Communist. Unfortunately, I have no access to Daniel Horowitz’ book to see if it actually bears out David Horowitz’ claim that Friedan was a Communist. On the Net I see at least one Communist who reviles Friedan, (http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bookstore/books/gender/friedan.html), calling her a “petty bourgeois” and an anti-Communist.
So what’s the Straight Dope? Was Friedan really ever a Communist?
Daniel Horowitz’ article raises some possibility that Friedan might have been a Communist, where it states “She and the friends with whom she lived before marrying considered themselves in ‘the vanguard of the working-class [End Page 5] revolution,’ participating in ‘Marxist discussion groups,’ going to political rallies, and having ‘only contempt for dreary bourgeois capitalists like our fathers.’” That would be consistent with Communism, but I don’t think it is definitive; you can be in favor of revolution (like the Founding Fathers) without being Communist. If Friedan herself was a Marxist revolutionary, I don’t see what meaningful distinction there would be between that and being a Communist, but participating in a discussion group with Marxists isn’t the same as being a Marxist oneself.
Based on the article by Daniel Horowitz, the answer appears to be an unequivocal No. There is no mention of the CPUSA. There is no mention of her actually espousing Marxist ideals or working with any other actual Communists.
She was certainly on the Left, politically, and probably brushed elbows with real live Communists (as at the writing program). However, the Left was a large and ever-brawling mix of people from a wide range of viewpoints of which the Communists were only one voice. It is only among the fearful of the Right (not all people on the political Right) that everyone on the Left is transmogrified into members of the monolithic “Communist movement” (that was never as large–and certainly never as monolithic or of such single-minded purpose) as folks such as those in the John Birch Society would like to pretend.
Based on the article in Oat1957’s link, I think Friedan’s participation in any actual “Communist” group (much less the CPUSA), is extremely unlikely. Those who choose to view everyone on the Left as “Communist” can certainly find evidence among Friedan’s views to damn her, but there is no genuine evidence of an actual Communist association.
When someone called the local sports phone-in show and accused Bud Selig of being a “commie” I realized that this has become an all-purpose epithet having no objective meaning. If I said what I thought of Bud Selig you would complain to the moderator, but communist is just about the last possibility.