Rose Director Friedman attended Reed College and then transferred to the University of Chicago where she received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. She continued her training in economics at the University of Chicago, completing all work for a Ph.D. except for writing a thesis. She was on the staff of the National Resources Committee (Washington), working on a nationwide study of consumer purchases, and continued work on that study at the Bureau of Home Economics.

She then joined the staff of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation where she worked until she was married and moved to New York, where she was on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research until she and her husband moved to Wisconsin in 1940. Since then, she has continued economic research on her own, publishing a pamphlet, Poverty -- Definition and Perspective (American Enterprise Institute, 1965), and a series of twelve articles entitled "Milton Friedman -- Husband and Colleague" in the Oriental Economist (May 1976 to August 1977). The series was also published as a book in Japanese. She collaborated with her husband on three books on public policy that have received wide attention and circulation: Capitalism and Freedom (University of Chicago Press, 1962), Free to Choose (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), and Tyranny of the Status Quo (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984). She also served as associate producer of the PBS television series, "Free to Choose."

She received an honorary LL.D. in December 1986 from Pepperdine University. She and her husband have established the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, for the purpose of promoting parental choice of the schools their children attend. The Foundation is based in Indianapolis and its president and chief operating officer is Gordon St Angelo.

She and her husband published their memoirs: Milton and Rose D. Friedman, Two Lucky People (University of Chicago Press, 1998).