Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist born in 1921 in Peoria, Illinois. She earned a psychology degree from Smith College and spent a year studying psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Friedan is widely credited with sparking the second-wave feminist movement in the United States in the 1960s with her book The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, which gave voice to frustrations of American women with limited gender roles. Later in her career, she co-founded the National Organization for Women and organized the National Strike for Equality in 1970 to fight for equal rights and opportunities for women.