When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins

Sep 08, 2012 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a personable, insightful look at "the women's movement". Really she covers more than from 1960, in order to compare the later half of the century to the times before it. Collins does a nice job of putting efforts for gender equality into historical context; in particular, I enjoyed her writing on how it interacted with the civil rights movement. While not perfectly universal in her approach, Collins also does a decent job of bringing in the experience of not only middle- or upper-class E...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Julie Ekkers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I like Gail Collins' columns so I picked this up, but did not expect to learn much that was new only because I've read a lot of post-WWII history and women's history. But I learned a lot! Collins weaves interviews she did with regular folks who lived through these times with reporting on the events of those years. I thought this approach gave the reader the best of both worlds--the broader picture, and the individual people moving through it. The sections on the 1960s and 70s were especially wel...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Saw this book on a Women's History Month display as I was walking through the library and thought - Aha! This book is about me. And it was. I had forgotten, or maybe hadn't paid attention at the time,to some of the things in the 60s that drove the women's movement. Now I remember that I couldn't go to graduate school and get in-state tuition unless my husband signed that I really lived in Texas, couldn't have a credit card in my own name, couldn't buy property on my own. And the things we wore!...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Elizabeth Hall Magill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Holy smokin moley. Please, please, pretty please with freedom on top, read When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, by Gail Collins. Read it and remember your foremothers—your great-grandmother, your grandmother, your mother. Read it and weep. Read it and sing. And then tell your friends to read it. This book will make you want to finish history, because it will tell you what history is—and remind you, in the skin of your own life, why history need...more Holy smokin moley. Please, please, pretty please with freedom on top, read When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, by Gail Collins. Read it and remember your foremothers—your great-grandmother, your grandmother, your mother. Read it and weep. Read it and sing. And then tell your friends to read it. This book will make you want to finish history, because it will tell you what history is—and remind you, in the skin of your own life, why history needs now: so she can finish herself, and rest. If you were alive for the women’s rights movement, When Everything Changed will stand as a testimony to your experience; if you weren’t, you will be able to place your own life in context like never before.

The book is divided into three parts: 1960, When Everything Changed, and Following Through. Ms. Collins does a wonderful job of interweaving the many social factors at play—the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, key pieces of legislation, the legal battles that made the laws stick, and the gaps in equality that still exist. Each chapter is divided into brief sections headed by a quotation from a particular woman’s experience, which provides a rich context for the astounding social changes that were occurring. Sometimes, the quotations are from women who are widely recognized for their accomplishments—women who have shaped history. The book includes the stories of all the major players, including Margaret Sanger, Alice Paul, Ella Baker, Rosa Parks, Betty Friedan, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Gloria Steinem. In telling the story of Loretta Weeks, who spent years fighting workplace discrimination after civil rights legislation had been passed, Ms. Collins quotes Ms. Weeks as saying, “…I knew women worked and needed a place in the world.”

But this isn’t just the story of well-known women fighting public battles for equality. Just as often, Ms. Collins quotes women whose trials and accomplishments were behind the scenes, women whose lives were affected by social change but didn’t necessarily become a catalyst for it. This narrative technique allows the reader to place herself in history; oh, you think. Here is where my story would fit.

I found this book extremely enlightening, as I was born in 1971, smack in the middle of the movement. By the time I was old enough to understand a bit of the world, I took for granted freedoms that were mere fantasies in the two decades before my birth, including a college education, an ability to see myself as a career woman first and a mother second, and the luxury of choosing any career I set my sights on.

The struggles of my generation, and those who have come after me, are charted in the last part of the book: the difficulty of balancing work and childcare for mothers, the continued, and expanded, emphasis on beauty as a woman’s most important asset. After reading this book, I understand both the blessings and the difficulties of my own time in a new way. Ms. Collins describes the legislation that changed women’s lives as well as the legislation, such as the Child and Family Services Bill of 1975, that never went anywhere. In doing so, she fills in the blanks for those of us who are familiar with the broad strokes of women’s history but fuzzy on the details.

Because women’s history isn’t taught as—well, you know, history—most of the women who fought to change our lives aren’t household names. When Everything Changed, by chronicling these lives, begins to right that wrong. This book should be required reading in high school and college history courses—it is both accessible and straightforward, and provides a window into our own lives. This book, in short, is essential; by reading it, we gain a deeper understanding of where we have been, and a fuller understanding of where we need to go.(less)

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Jan 09, 2013 Bill added it · review of another edition

Received as a gift, e-book edition; read it on the Kindle app on my new iPad mini.

I read this to brush up a little on feminism and women's rights. I still feel unversed in the topic, but at the same time I can thoroughly recommend this book as providing a valuable perspective. It's essentially women telling their own stories about their roles in the culture wars of the late 20th century, knit into a broader narrative by the author. I found myself clipping on halfway through the thing and suddenl...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Joleigh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

During the 1960's, I was in high and then college. I got married in 1970, had a baby in 1971, and was divorced in 1972. Quick work, you might say! Much of what Gail Collins writes in this book I had either forgotten or wasn't paying attention. Probably the latter, because I was too busy living my life. I did become involved in the Women's Movement when my daughter was about twelve and I began to worry that much of what I had begun to take for granted would not be there for her. Now I have a gran...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Jarrah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminist, non-fiction, history

I’d bought this book when it first came out, being a big fan of Collins’ New York Times columns, but I’d put off reading it after reading Collins’ subsequent open letter to young American women, which basically laid the decline of popular feminism at the feet of young women. I argued it was insulting to young feminists and showed a complete lack of accountability for any problems in the second wave feminist movement.

Eventually I came back to the book, having just read Rebecca Traister’s Big Girl...more

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May 31, 2012 Grady McCallie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Born in 1969, I found this history of women in American society, from 1960 to the present, especially illuminating for the years before 1990. It's certainly not academic. Gail Collins' writing is lively but in this book, in contrast to her newspaper columns, only rarely facetious. Using anecdotes more than statistics, Collins paints a compelling picture of the conventions and social expectations that shaped women's lives before and during the 1960s and 1970s, and of the struggles for women's rig...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Sirpa Grierson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This was for our family book group, Nourishing Utterances. It is a harder read for many who don't love history as it has little narrative flow and introduces so many stories of women that overlap in odd places. I enjoyed parts but felt that although I have lived through these times, I have always been tremendously thrilled to be a woman, rather that feeling oppressed. I do agree with Collins' definition of a feminist--one who is for equal rights under the law and equal wages. Feminism has become...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gail Collins set a monumental task for herself when she decided to write When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. Collins is the former editorials editor of The New York Times and writes a column for the Times oped page. Her method of detailing the history of the second wave of the feminist movement is to include personal anecdotes of individual women with the historical events that marked and shaped their lives.

As a person who came of age in the...more Gail Collins set a monumental task for herself when she decided to write When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. Collins is the former editorials editor of The New York Times and writes a column for the Times oped page. Her method of detailing the history of the second wave of the feminist movement is to include personal anecdotes of individual women with the historical events that marked and shaped their lives.

As a person who came of age in the '60s and who felt the exhilaration of first, seeing the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement unfold, then secondly being a part of The Feminist Mystique generation, I not only had my memory jogged as I read this book, I relived some of the events that took place during those years. Many women of my generation woke up to the realization that they didn't have to follow the traditional path that their mothers and grandmothers had trod. Rather they had choices that included activism but did not necessarily have to include having sex with and making coffee for the men in the anti-war movement and Civil Rights movements.

I was a the mother of young children in the '60s. Even so I knew I wanted a career of some kind that involved getting dressed up and going to work every day. As it turned out, I chose a career that women traditionally went into, teaching, for the very reason that many women choose such a career. It left me time to be at home with my children when they were at home. My children went to school at the same school where I taught, which was an added benefit. Many women of my generation, however, went into high-powered careers such as the law, medicine, business, and other jobs that required them to juggle family life and work life in a way that wasn't always satisfactory.

Collins traces the changes in women's lives from the days of communal living to the days of women getting a college education, then in recent times outdoing boys and men academically. Collins points out that when males were outdoing females scholastically, no one got upset about it. However, when the women started graduating from college at a higher rate than men and outdoing men scholastically, the issue became a national crisis worthy of coverage by major news outlets.

Another issue Collins deals with is that once younger women began to reap the benefits of what their grandmothers and mothers had fought for--equality in education, in jobs, in respect--many of them decided to take more time for their children and concentrate less of climbing the ladder of success. Collins does conceded that most women didn't have the luxury of choosing between work and family because they had to work to support those families.

Always for career women is the issue of child care. The goverment, once going in a liberal direction on this issue, pulled back when people like Phyllis Schafly and her ilk saw such a move as socialistic. Women, well off and poor alike, still struggle for adequate child care solutions.

Collins helped me understand why younger women not only don't want to hear about the struggles older women through, they also don't want to deal with those struggles themselves. They have their own struggles to face and those struggles should be respected.

When Everything Changed covers a lot of ground, but it does so in an enjoyable, engaging way. One thing is for sure: neither women nor men will never go back to the days of Ozzie and Harriet. No matter how much some people might long for those days, they're gone forever. Collins has done a good job of reminding us why that's the case.

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Feb 27, 2011 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found myself chuckling at least once every time I read Collins' column in the newspaper, so I decided to try this book. I really enjoyed it, though I was a little disappointed to find it closer to a college thesis than a Molly Ivins-style romp (or a Collins-style romp, for that matter). Her humor is sprinkled through the text, but I think she toned it down out of respect for what she rightfully sees as an important topic.

Still, it was a good thesis--well researched, multifacteted in its approa...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Ken Kugler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a New York Times columnist I expected a very readable book but I never expected such a great book.
As a Young Adult Librarian I was asked to submit a couple of titles and short reviews for Women's History Month. It had to be recent and in many libraries of our system. I started to read it to see if I should include it and I found I could not stop reading it. The stories are personal and uplifting. I remember the times and I thought I understood what was going on, after all I am a child of the...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book! Born in 1973, I'm too old to have learned about this time in history class (it was still new!) and too young to have lived through it. Reading this book made me feel like I'd taken a really great women's studies survey course about the US. It is both academic and readable covering political issues that stunned me (Republican women were in favor of the ERA), dramatic barriers women faced (no ability to go to graduate school, no ability to prevent pregnancy, no ability to purcha...more

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Dec 08, 2010 Jrumrill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought this was a pretty balanced portrayal of the journey of the women's movement and what became of it. I was very hopeful when I started the book that it would not be an "Amazing Journey of [white, middle-class, college- educated feminine mystique] American Women, and I was not disappointed. Collins wove together the expreiences of women from all social classes, racial backgrounds, levels of education, wealth, etc.
I was most excited to read the section about my generation of women, but th...more

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Sep 12, 2010 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I learned a lot from this book, and unlike other books about women that I've started--but not yet finished--(Feminine Mystique, Second Sex) this one really grabbed me. It's a brisk read, funny in parts, and it deftly provides an overview of the seismic cultural shifts in American culture over the past fifty years.

In 1960, women had a small number of choices in life: get married and raise children, stay single and become a social outcast (this view hasn't been stamped out entirely), or work as a...more I learned a lot from this book, and unlike other books about women that I've started--but not yet finished--(Feminine Mystique, Second Sex) this one really grabbed me. It's a brisk read, funny in parts, and it deftly provides an overview of the seismic cultural shifts in American culture over the past fifty years.

In 1960, women had a small number of choices in life: get married and raise children, stay single and become a social outcast (this view hasn't been stamped out entirely), or work as a stewardess, secretary, or some other low-paying, low-respected job--and then quit when married or keep working because quitting wasn't an option. Employers openly discriminated against women (I emphasize "openly;" some of Collins' anecdotes are quite surprising, even to a Mad Men viewer), and a pervasive mindset existed that women simply did not deserve the same opportunities as men.

In the mid-sixties, things started to change. The book flounders a bit when it tries to explain why things changed--I found some of the explanations a bit short and inadequate. In a nutshell, though, due to economic decline, the civil rights movement, legal victories, and key feminist figures, women slowly earned the rights to compete with men in the workplace.

The story does not end there, however. What I find most interesting about women's situation in 2010, and what the book covers to a decent degree, is that while women can now become doctors, lawyers, politicians, police officers, etc., they are still expected to juggle children and home life more than a man is. In other words, yes, women, you can work all you want, but you'll also need to drop off the kids and school and finish dinner while (not in every case) the husband enjoys time golfing.

The book also paints an interesting historical picture of life in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, not just about women, but about changing economic conditions and politics that in turn changed the way women operated within the workplace and the family.

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Sep 03, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Long but readable survey of exactly what the title suggests. She works for the NY Times, and a lot of it read like quick summaries of Times trend stories, one after another (women outnumber men in college; highly educated women are opting out; Michelle Obama exemplifies the strain of trying to have it all..........). It's a book you could enjoyably read in any order, a little at a time. That is, there's not a close analysis of a particular topic or study or issue that you need to track (such as...more Long but readable survey of exactly what the title suggests. She works for the NY Times, and a lot of it read like quick summaries of Times trend stories, one after another (women outnumber men in college; highly educated women are opting out; Michelle Obama exemplifies the strain of trying to have it all..........). It's a book you could enjoyably read in any order, a little at a time. That is, there's not a close analysis of a particular topic or study or issue that you need to track (such as would be found in any given chapter of Susan Faludi's Backlash), but more a parade of vignettes, interviews, highlights, etc.

Lots of it I remember quite clearly and could have skipped -- anybody who needs a couple pages summarizing the 2008 campaign from the standpoint of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin has a seriously short memory. Other stuff I remember very well but took pleasure in revisiting -- e.g., Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs match on which I won a bet ($1, which was worth something in those days!) with my 7th grade history teacher.

And some I either never knew (in one anecdote a woman in early 60's is turned away from a hotel bar in Boston because "we don't serve women") or had lost track of the relevant time frame (e.g., a woman in 1974 being unable to get a credit card in her own name rather than husband's -- subsequent events have made clear that getting credit cards is a two-edged sword, but still..........).

Nothing to do with this book, but not sure where else to put this momentous announcement, as I doubt a press conference would be well-attended. This is my 200th review posted on goodreads, and I plan to take a different approach henceforth. Instead of writing at least a brief review concerning just about every book I read, I'm going to streamline. If I read something trivial, I'll either omit it altogether or just assign a number of stars and leave it at that. May instead go back from time to time and post about worthwhile books I've read some time ago, etc. In other words, like Jonathan Yardley in the book review section of the Washington Post a few years ago, I hereby give myself permission to experiment more with the form rather than working to appease my inner assignment editor who demands copy about anything that crosses my desk. (less)

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Jun 21, 2010 Holly marked it as to-read · review of another edition

From Musings:4 stars

This book is a modern history of women in the United States from 1960 through the 2008 US Presidential campaign. Gail Collins, the first woman to serve as editor of the New York Times editorial page, begins with a detailed review of the role of women, and societal attitudes towards women, in 1960. There were virtually no women doctors or lawyers. Television had taken the nation by storm, with 90% of American families owning a TV, and most programs portrayed the men in lead ro...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gail Collins' new social and political history, "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present," is not just an eminently readable book, it's a page-turner — and the perfect choice for International Women's Day (March 8). Though Collins doesn't appear to have left anyone or anything out — and has packed the volume with quotes and stats — the book is both fast-paced and entertaining. Having come of age during much of the history Collins writes about — and...more Gail Collins' new social and political history, "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present," is not just an eminently readable book, it's a page-turner — and the perfect choice for International Women's Day (March 8). Though Collins doesn't appear to have left anyone or anything out — and has packed the volume with quotes and stats — the book is both fast-paced and entertaining. Having come of age during much of the history Collins writes about — and even having participated in some of the events — I still found plenty to surprise and inform to me.

What makes "When Everything Changed" such an enthralling read is that Collins tells the larger story by relating the stories of a wide group of individual women of the era — along with the responses of their mothers and daughters to their actions. Some of the names are familiar like Gloria Steinem or Madeleine Kunin, but others — whose names are less-well known — have achieved just as much in their spheres as these movement icons. Their stories, in fact, are more moving for being unknown.

Even if you are old enough to remember what life for women was like as it is described in the pages of this book, there are times when you feel like these stories and situations have to be some kind of joke, they are so absurd. Others are just plain infuriating. Some examples:

* In 1974 Kathryn Kirschbaum, the mayor of Davenport, Iowa, could not get a Bank of America card unless she got her husband's signature. Even Billie Jean King — who won three Winbleton titles in a single year and was supporting her household with those earnings — could not get a credit card unless it was in the name of her husband, a law student with no income.

* The New York Times eliminated gender in the paper's help-wanted ads in December, 1968. But it took until 2001 for the book's author, Gail Collins, to be named the first female editorial page editor of the Times.

* The sum total of women's athletic scholarships for the entire nation in 1972 was $100,000. (Thanks to Title IX, by 1984 there were ten thousand athletic scholarships for women and thirty different national women's collelgiate championships, compared to none in 1970.)

There's lots of politics, personalities and legislative wrangling here, but Collins has leavened the serious with the silly. The sections on hair (white or Black), mini-skirts, going bra-less, shaving/not-shaving/shaving again, and, of course, high heels are all a hoot — and spot-on. (I loved no longer suffering the agony of curling my hair every night and sleeping on rollers, going bra-less and wearing tights with no more garter belts and girdles; the freedom was heavenly! Not to dismiss the serious aims of the movement, but those transformations have been just as long lasting and influential among the women I know, as any of the legal decisions).

While the changes enumerated in Collins' book, prove beyond a doubt that we've come a long way, the book also emphasizes our discovery that you can't have it all. We have finally had women in legitimate competition for the nation's highest elected office, but we failed to get the kind of government support for universal daycare that other industrialized nations have. That's the missing element that makes it possible for women to have both jobs and families without either being neglected. Whether you find "When Everything Changed" a satisfying or a sobering read, will likely depend on whether you see the journey Collins' chronicles as at an end or still in progress. (less)

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Feb 26, 2010 Elevate Difference rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, Gail Collins, you had me at New York Times columnist. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived away from New York for so long now and have to read it online most of the year, but holding printed and bound words from a witty Times writer in a book that I can dip into for a few minutes, or a hour, whenever I like is brainy self-indulgence that I can say yes to.

My mother grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and I’ve always had a thing for vintage and retro pop culture. If this is you, too, you’ll quickly find yo...more Oh, Gail Collins, you had me at New York Times columnist. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived away from New York for so long now and have to read it online most of the year, but holding printed and bound words from a witty Times writer in a book that I can dip into for a few minutes, or a hour, whenever I like is brainy self-indulgence that I can say yes to.

My mother grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and I’ve always had a thing for vintage and retro pop culture. If this is you, too, you’ll quickly find yourself on board as well, Times fetish or no. The ‘New Yorkness’ of Collins’ writing style is so readable that the broad range of subjects covered in its 405 pages are cohesive and coherent. As for the title of the book, it had me thinking immediately—I had a mini-epiphany before even cracking the cover—of course, then it all changed.

When Everything Changed contains facts I should have known, such as the shock-value of women wearing trousers, archaic divorce laws with state-by-state variations that virtually trapped women in marriage, and the ‘speed-dating’ approach many women took to college in the '60s, using higher learning as a way to find a husband. The chronicles pivotal moments in our recent feminist history—from things that seem simple, like adhesive maxi pads, to nation-altering events, like the Equal Rights Amendment.

Readers of all ages will enjoy finding their decade in the chronology. The conclusions Collins draws about each era are deft, trustworthy and cogent. It is interesting to see Collins assert that that we are a part of living history, and that these changes, while feeling slow, have been swift in the grand scheme of things. This book is hard to stop reading even if you meant to leave some for later. It flows so well and is written in such a conversational style that I found it easy to carry on for a few more chapters.

The picture section seemed unnecessary to me. I wanted big, iconic illustrations throughout, or none at all, but that’s a small criticism for a largely excellent read. This book is a primer, of sorts, but I felt that the way the images were presented was more cursory than inspiring. The words alone are enough to encourage readers to find out more. Should gender studies, or women’s history be offered as a high school module or elective, I’d recommend this book, or extracts from it as an introductory text.

Based on my enjoyment of When Everything Changed, I’m also interested in tracking down Collins’ precursor to this book: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. This is a more mainstream feminist text than I’ve read in a while, and I was almost put off by the schmaltzy tone of the book jacket, which I interpreted as lauding Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign as a symbol for the be all and end all of women’s equality. This tone continues in the final chapter itself, which I found to be a dissatisfying gloss over of the achievements of all American women, rather than just the privileged few in mainstream politics. Moreover, the stylistically vague 'gloss' of American women can be interpreted as a very real slight, considering the minimal representation of women not from the U.S.

Most interesting to me is the epilogue section. While some of it is depressing, the fates of some of the figures mentioned in the book are quite uplifting. There’s even a witty bit about Barbie dolls. Overall, the book is enjoyable and informative. It serves as an inspiring reminder of not only when it all changed, but how it all changed.

Review by Chella Quint(less)

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Feb 20, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010-nonfiction

When Everything Changed-the Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. By Gail Collins, narrated by Christina Moore, produced by recorded Books, downloaded from audible.com.

Gail Collins is one of my favorite New York Times columnists. Her sharp wit and keen observations are very much present in this book. She starts out in around 1960-before the birth control pill, when a witness bringing in a traffic ticket to traffic court was scolded roundly for wearing slacks and her husband...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, social-science

I've always thought of myself as "moderate" on most political issues, but recent conversations with co-workers have helped me realize my views fall squarely in the "liberal" category. So, when The New York Times gave a rave review to this book, I decided it was time to educate myself about some true liberals (or "libbers", as the case may be) and added it to my library hold list.

My first impression was the one I get from so many columnists-turned-book-writers: It reads like a huge collection of...more I've always thought of myself as "moderate" on most political issues, but recent conversations with co-workers have helped me realize my views fall squarely in the "liberal" category. So, when The New York Times gave a rave review to this book, I decided it was time to educate myself about some true liberals (or "libbers", as the case may be) and added it to my library hold list.

My first impression was the one I get from so many columnists-turned-book-writers: It reads like a huge collection of newspaper articles. You literally cannot go two pages without getting to a new sub-heading and matching anecdote. Initially this annoyed me, as I had been fantasizing about an in-depth education on the modern history of the women's movement. However, the style slowly won me over, especially as life went from the relative lull of the holiday season to full-time work/volunteering/etc. If you have 10 minutes to kill, this is a book you can pick up without worrying about having to abandon it mid-story.

Also, while this book does not have an academic level of depth by any means, it does provide a nice overview of key points in the women's movement, including Civil Rights, the formation of NOW, the fight for the ERA, and the mass entrance of women into higher education and the workplace throughout the 70s and 80s. Collins introduces you to hundreds of women--some famous, some not so--and recounts their personal stories in a way that helps make the human connection to major events that seem so much bigger than one person.

By the second half of the book, I was truly enjoying myself. I got especially interested when Collins hit the 1980s, as I was able to put the stories in the context of my own life. At one point, a 1980s executive jokes about how they wore "little bowties" to look as professional as men. I vividly remember the yellow paisley bowtie my HR executive mother wore to the office almost every day. At that point, I knew this book had struck a cord with me.

Ultimately, I appreciated this book for making me think. I've always held a small, secret bit of resentment toward my mother for what I felt was her choosing a career over me. Now, with the context this book provided, I can appreciate how tough that decision must have been for her, and how after being one of only 4 women in her MBA class, she must have felt that she HAD to prove women have a place in the business world. Now I am forced to reasess my own long-held plans of moving to part-time work whenever I have kids of my own. In trying to help my children, will I end up hurting my entire gender?

That's one of the many tough questions raised by this overall enjoyable book. (less)

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Oct 25, 2009 Ruth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. I was well written, with lots of stories of individual women that gave a personal touch to what could have been a dry history book. Being at the tail end of the baby boom, I'm of an age to remember most of what she wrote about. I found it interesting that she said something I've written before--that at least part of the women's movement happened because of the recession of the 1970's. Basically, it got to the point that in order to main the lifestyle to which they had become a...more

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Sep 05, 2010 Jan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Unfortunately, I waited a very long seven months on the hold list at my local library to finally receive a copy of this book. Perhaps my expectations rose a little too high through this waiting period. I wanted to really, really like this book. I wanted to give it 5 stars. But I simply didn't think it was as great as I had anticipated.

I did greatly enjoy the first half of the book, where Collins explains where women's rights were prior to 1960 and what happened throughout the 1960s (and its rela...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book in the same way I enjoy Gail Collins' columns in the New York Times each week: Collins' writes with an enthusiasm and a sense of care for her subjects that seems to have become lost or passe among may op/ed writers, yet she never loses her talent for witty and sharp observation, nor her ability to hone in on the important detail.

This is the history of the "Women's Movement" with a capital M and W. There isn't a lot here that I didn't know before, but there are terrific storie...more

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Feb 12, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A really solid, and satisfying read-- a coherent overview of the women's movement since the 1960s. I knew some of these stories, but the vast majority of them were new to me, and I feel like I have a much broader understanding of the subject matter than I did going into this.

It's hard, with a book like this, to really discern an argument-- if anything, it seems to be that the women's movement has really improved the lot and lives of women, and the last sections of the book, which document the ri...more

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Apr 02, 2011 Tad Hopp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I probably would have never even read this book had it not my church book club's book this month. I am very glad I took the time to read it, though. It was a fascinating and engaging read. A lot of the stories and events in here I had heard about but it was good to hear personal accounts of them. I will confess to not really knowing about a lot of what she writes about in here. As a product of the 80s, I was fortunate enough to have grown up in an age when women already seemed to be equals in ev...more

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Mar 04, 2010 Grumpylibrarian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, feminism, history, non-fiction, politics, religion, sexuality

I feel strongly that this is among the most important books I have ever read and perhaps is the most important book I will ever read. Collins gives shape to the early development of gender politics in America until present day, always giving credit where credit is due, always noting where mistakes were made, where improvement would have helped, where shortcoming existed, and where the future has to go.

Most importantly, Collins manages to emphasize the point that while a woman's lot in life has i...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Phyllis O rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So much of this has happened in my lifetime. I can remember going to buy my first (used) car on my own in 1985, and the salesman asking me if my daddy was going to co-sign the loan for me. There I stood, college degree in one hand and downpayment I had earned in the other, and was being asked if my daddy was going to stand for me. Things have come very far, very fast. However, it's sad and scary the movie '9-5' could be remade today with updated fashions and little if no other changes to the scr...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The kids and I have been studying history, post WWII. I really
struggled to find a good book about the women's movement. Too many
women's history books use history books written in the 70s as their
sources rather than doing their own research. I also had a hard time
finding a book that incorporated all the changes that were happening,
like women in medicine and engineering, rather than just Roe v. Wade
and the ERA.

This is not a kids book. This is a book for parents and teachers to
read to get the compr...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Jenna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, that explains a lot.

I also finally "get" the book Stranger in a Strange Land, which I was completely flummoxed by when I read it back in high school. The sci-fi story, written in the 60s, really shows more of the time it was written in than anything else. The notion of free love and the sexual revolution are obvious themes, and the treatment of women as suitable for supportive roles but never leaders is an attitude that permeates the entire story and is the main reason I was unable to like...more

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title link	preview: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
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When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

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