Tuesday evening I watched the PBS documentary MAKERS: Women Who Made America. It was the most thrilling documentary I’ve ever seen. I wondered why so much of it was new to me, and I realized that when the Women’s Movement started there was so much animosity toward it that the events that made it exciting and life changing were not common knowledge. Everything about the movement that was world-shattering was played down, made invisible.
I knew nothing about what the Women’s Liberation Union was doing in New York, nothing about the first woman to enter the New York Marathon, nothing about the sit-in at The Ladies Home Journal, nothing about the numbers of women marching in New York, and I was an active feminist! I was part of the class-action suit that finished off gender-based classified want ads in Chicago, and yet I was ignorant of events in other cities. I didn’t know about the large part Phyllis Schlafly played in stopping the passage of the ERA. Depressing but an important part of the total picture. Please watch it…It will make you feel good. http://www.pbs.org/makers/home/ and http://www.makers.com/.
Watch Part One: Awakening on PBS. See more from Makers: Women Who Make America.
amen. i was thinking the same thing: was i really there?
That documentary should be watched, by every woman of any age, and by probably every man, too. Parts brought tears to my eyes. I coached a consciousness-raising group and I marched on Washington for the ERA – it was SPLENDID! We gathered on the mall, by state, all dressed in white, then marched, about 10 abreast. And the documentary made me wish I had been more involved! Exciting times – but we are still fighting some of the same old fights.
I live in a small town, but those of us who BELIEVED, were able to find each other. We had a small NOW chapter, which eventually disbanded, then reformed in another town about 15 miles away, in 1980, and we still meet. A very small, but very hardy band of feminists!
I watched ‘Makers’ also and thought it excellent. My one quibble is I think they could have selected a better title. I marched with Irish women for NOW and remember it very vividly. I think many of us regret not doing more and it’s quite true – it still goes on. I had my daughter tape it to watch and my grandson (he’s nine) watched it with interest.
I missed it and am sure it will be repeated so I can see the whole thing on my new biggish TV. I was in two consciousness-raising groups here in NYC in the early ’70s. Click. Still goes on.
absolutely essential watching…..
I didn’t know, either, about the first woman Marathoner……In 1970, she entered using her initials, so the Marathon boss was surprised when he saw a woman runner. The Marathon boss tried to TACKLE HER from behind to get her out of “his” race, and only the meaty response of her very large husband and running partner kept her in the race….and it was all caught on film……
a rich documentary, should be required watching in schools….
Yes I remember the “incident” quite well. Also I too was a Stewardess a bit after those portrayed. When the picture showed up, one looked so much like me at the time that I had to do a double take. It was a good life then before flying got like cattle cars. They checked and weighed us with regularity, that stupid girdle! Well, I got the lightest thing available. When I applied the height limit was 5’7″ or maybe 5’8″, I was 5’9″. Since skirts were longer then, I was able to bend my knees a bit and pass…;^) I think that the male Stewards were paid more. As I recall I was looking for a career, but could see there were a lot more gals ahead of me, and the so-called retirement age was still in effect. I think it was maybe 36…? So it was fun for a while, but I left to go back and finish college.
Thanks so much for posting the link to the whole video. I wish I had done more, too. So it goes.
Carol, I marched with the irish feminists in Chicago. We were placed in back of the horses. Could that have been accidental?