I was but a little girl when I started hearing the first rumblings of the Feminist Movement. As I grew older it was fascinating to see it all unfold—from the Feminine Mystique, to the protests and marches on the nation’s capital, to Erica Jong’s best-selling book, “Fear of Flying,” and to the launch of Ms. magazine, and my very first copy at the age of sixteen.
As a Baby Boomer, I feel as though I straddled two worlds for women, with two distinct types of role models: the Harriet Nelson’s (“Ozzie and Harriet”) and Jane Wyatt’s (“Father Knows Best”), who taught me that a woman’s place is in the home, and Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, who taught me that a woman’s place could be anywhere. We’d just have to break some barriers to get there.
Seeing how far we’ve come, I feel lucky to have been able to experience firsthand such a major part women’s history. I may not have had a front row seat, but I was definitely somewhere in the mezzanine area, taking part in my own way, as a young student earning my degree and then joining the workforce. My path was made a bit easier, because of the women who played a key role in the Feminist Movement, and for that I am thankful.
In honor of Women’s History Month, I hope you will join KPBS, tonight at 7 p.m., for a special online screening of “Charting a New Course,” part three of “MAKERS: Women Who Make America.” Here’s a description of the episode we’ll be viewing and chatting about:
As the Movement achieved its long-sought goals, new generations of women were re-evaluating some of its most basic assumptions, particularly the balance between work and family. By the 2000s, the movement was again under attack from conservatives seeking to roll back abortion and contraception laws, and by younger women fleeing the very word “feminism.”
