Feminist activists in 1968. From left to right: Interviewer named Billington; National Organization for Women (NOW) founder and president Betty Naomi Goldstein Friedan (1921-2006); NOW co-chair and Washington, D.C., lobbyist Barbara Ireton (1932-1998); and feminist attorney Marguerite Rawalt (1895-1989). A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, Betty Friedan wrote "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963, which is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men."