Saturday, February 27, 2010

When Everything Changed by Gail Collins (2009)

Subtitle: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. This book was the common read for our Gender and Women's Studies Department this spring.
A great, wonderful history that put the whole story together for me in a way I never could have myself. Collins is a New York Times op-ed columnist, and was able to pull up pertinent articles from the NYT for the different phases of the women's movement. She has interviewed major players and fills the book with women's stories - both famous and average - showing the variety of beliefs, approaches, life-styles in each era. It also gave me a good sense of why I think and do things the way I do. A few years make a huge difference. One woman a few years older said she had still grown up expecting to get an Mrs. degree. A lot of the battles were fought before I came of age and I took advantage of the liberties women had gained.

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