The feminist movement was not rigidly structured or led by a single figure or group. As one feminist wrote, "The women's movement is a non-hierarchical one. It does things collectively and experimentally."[13] In fact, the movement was deeply divided between young and old, upper-class and lower-class, conservative and radical. Betty Friedan was determined to make the movement a respectable part of mainstream society and distanced herself from what she termed the "bra-burning, anti-man, politics-of-orgasm" school of feminism; she even spent years insinuating that the young feminist leader Gloria Steinem had sinister links to the FBI and CIA.[14] Younger feminists, for their part, distrusted the older generation and viewed NOW as stuffy and out of touch: "NOW's demands and organizational style weren't radical enough for us."[15]
When these divides were combined with a reluctance to choose official leaders for the movement, it gave the media an opening to anoint its own "feminist leaders," leading to resentment within the movement. Meanwhile, in this leadership vacuum, the most assertive women promoted themselves as leaders, prompting attacks from other women who believed that all members of the movement should be equal in status.[16]