Betty White on Feminism

Legendary actress Betty White has enjoyed a career that is unparalleled in Hollywood. From her early days in radio to her first TV show in which she improvised for 33 1/2 hours a week to her domination as a game show guest to sitcoms like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls White has worked consistently for over 70 years. And she’s not slowing down with last year’s Sandra Bullock rom-com The Proposal, her hysterical Super Bowl commercial for Snickers, and what is sure to be a classic Facebook campaign fueled hosting slot on Saturday Night Live on May 8.

So she must have faced a lot of sexism along the way, right? After all, she started as a wide-eyed young girl fresh out of high school and was working in the male dominated entertainment industry decades before Woman’s Lib was even a glimmer of a concept. Sure, Katherine Bigelow’s Oscar win for The Hurt Locker was way over due but we contend that Betty White’s the true feminist icon of the new (and old) millennium.

We've been editing clips of Betty White from an interview she did in 1997 for the Archive of American Television. See what Betty has to say in her own words – she is woman, hear her roar.