Betty Friedan was an American writer and activist who helped found the feminist movement in the United States in the 1960s. She died on February 4, 2006 in Washington D.C. of congestive heart failure at the age of 85. She is best known for writing The Feminine Mystique in 1963, which challenged the traditional post-World War II cultural assumption that women could find fulfillment only through housewifery and motherhood. She co-founded the National Organization for Women and aided in founding the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, helping to change the lives of many American women.