"We need to see men and women as equal partners, but it's hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy!"
About this Quote
The subtext is bigger than film criticism. Movies are Friedan’s proxy for the broader story a society tells itself about what men and women are allowed to be together. Partnership requires shared agency, conflict that isn’t resolved by one person shrinking, and a worldview where a woman’s competence isn’t treated as a cute plot twist. Hollywood, in her telling, can stage strong women, even iconic ones, but struggles to stage equality without turning it into either a battle of egos or a sentimental surrender.
Context matters: Friedan is speaking as a second-wave feminist who watched postwar America repackage domestic confinement as fulfillment, then watched mass media reinforce it. Her point isn’t that earlier films were perfect; it’s that we’ve failed to build a modern canon where equality feels normal instead of nostalgic. The sting is that progress is being measured by how far back you have to reach to pretend it already happened.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: Betty Friedan (Betty Friedan) modern compilation
Evidence:
e fellow victim we need to see men and women as equal partners but its hard to think of movies that do that when i talk to people they think of movies of fortyfive years ago hepburn and tracy as quoted in people magazi |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Friedan, Betty. (2026, March 23). We need to see men and women as equal partners, but it's hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy! FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-need-to-see-men-and-women-as-equal-partners-108539/
Chicago Style
Friedan, Betty. "We need to see men and women as equal partners, but it's hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy!" FixQuotes. March 23, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-need-to-see-men-and-women-as-equal-partners-108539/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We need to see men and women as equal partners, but it's hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy!" FixQuotes, 23 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-need-to-see-men-and-women-as-equal-partners-108539/. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
