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

Gail Collins

4.06 · Rating details · 4,838 ratings · 787 reviews

Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" (People).

When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presi ...more

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486 pages

Published October 21st 2010 by Back Bay Books (first published October 14th 2009)

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Feb 07, 2013 Elizabeth Hall rated it it was amazing · 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 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. ...more

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Nov 10, 2010 Julie Ekkers rated it really liked it · 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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Feb 02, 2010 Chris rated it liked it · 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 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. ...more

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Feb 27, 2018 Kristy Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, social-cultural-studies

I was reading this book in October of 2016. I could only read about 10 pages at a time before I could feel my blood pressure going up, and the rage reaching a boiling point. And then the election happened. I was too lost in despair to continue the book, and I set it aside. Well, the despair is gone, but the rage is still here. I don't know if that will ever really leave. But I am ready to channel the anger.

This book has 3 parts. The first part describes the 1950's and early 1960's, and the statu ...more

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Aug 09, 2015 Alan Cook rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was going to give this book four stars instead of five because I thought the author was cherry-picking her examples, but the more I got into the book the more I saw that she was doing in-depth research and trying to remain objective, which is difficult to do with a subject like this. My wife and I both lived and worked through the time period covered in the book, and of course we each have our own take on what happened, but the book brought back many memories.

I read the book because I am curre ...more

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Dec 09, 2009 Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, non-fiction

"When Everything Changed" is a history of American women from 1960 the present and everything that they had to go through in order to get where we are today. It was a time of rapid change. You had women entering the workforce in higher levels than ever before. Their roles and the way that they saw themselves, and the ways that they wanted others to see them were changing as well. When you look at history, there is so much change that occurred for women in the 1960s. The 1960s were really the beg ...more

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May 25, 2015 Darcy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I found this to be just a delight to read. All kinds of "I didn't know that!" and "Oooh, insightful!" and "[chuckle] Oh Gail, how droll!" moments. Lots I didn't know about famous women in a variety of fields, and great story after great story about non-famous women as well.

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Feb 21, 2011 Dana Stabenow rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I was too young and also incredibly lucky to have been raised by a mother who never said "You can't do that, honey, you're a girl" to be paying enough attention to the women's rights movement. So it's lucky Collins wrote this definitive history, so I can read about Lois Rabinowitz getting thrown out of a NYC court in 1960 because she's wearing slacks, and about Tahita Jenkins, fired from her job as a New York City bus driver in 2007 because she wouldn't wear pants.

The greatest irony of the celeb ...more

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Aug 01, 2014 Patty rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-writers, women, women-in-mass-media, feminism, 2014, women-s-rights, family, women-s-liberation, women-s-history, freedom

It has taken me awhile to finish this book, but that was only because other reading had to come first. When I had time, I was immersed in the story that Collins tells in this book. I think Collins has done an excellent job of recording American women’s history. Since the period she covers (1960-2008) is the better part of my life, I had experienced much of what she records here. However, I had not looked back at women’s journey in any organized way.

I am grateful to Collins for all the work she p ...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Megan rated it it was amazing · 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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Jun 13, 2016 Bonny Robinson Cook rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I like this book because it covers the time period of my working career and talks about many of the issues of the "women's movement" that affected me. Women were discriminated against in a multitude of areas, one of them being the workplace. Younger women should read this book for an understanding of changing relationships between the sexes (and to give proper thanks to those who paved the way for them and made it easier for them to rise in the business world as well as government). Gail Collins ...more

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Mar 04, 2015 Diana Band rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite

I consider myself a pretty voracious reader, and I've read a lot of great books -- fiction and nonfiction -- over the years. But, it is rare that I read a book that is so life-changing...I'm looking at the world differently after this read, and am encouraging everyone I know to read it. A quoted review inside calls "When Everything Changed" "compulsively readable" -- and it is. I was shocked to find myself unable to put this book down, dying to know "what happened next" even as I got into the de ...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Jarrah rated it it was ok · 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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Nov 23, 2009 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

While it's not as punchy as her newspaper columns, Gail Collins's book When Everything Changed is a fantastically lively and readable account of the women's movement from the 1960's to today. The success of the movement makes it possible for people my age to take its achievements literally for granted; reading this history not only makes you appreciate the conviction and initiative of these women, but makes it seem possible to do much more.

The story is told through anecdotes from women of differ ...more

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May 31, 2012 Grady McCallie rated it really liked it · 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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Dec 08, 2010 Jrumrill rated it really liked it · 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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Jun 29, 2018 Sandie rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was a book group choice. I wanted to read it as I have liked Gail Collins' opinion pieces in the past. The book claims to cover American women's history from 1960 to the present. I was a little daunted by the 400 page length but found that the pages turned quickly. The writing is somewhat anecdotal, and not dense. I sometimes wished she had given dates or years to some of the events she is writing about. I lived through that time as an almost adult and then an adult and was aware of what wa ...more

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Jan 20, 2015 Alex Ullberg rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book was an engaging study of the changes brough on by the 1960s by American women. I read it all in just over a day unable to resist the combination of women's personal stories and historical background. That being said, the book does have its flaws. I couldn't help but feel that the book would have been stronger with some more attention given to the gay rights movement of the time and how that impacted second-wave feminism. It also seemed like Collins didn't consider the polarization of p ...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I was a little guarded as I started this book because my life choices and politics might seen to go against the aims of feminism and it's not fun to feel defensive for 400 pages. But I love the history of women's rights and agree with and am grateful for the movement. It was anecdotally written almost and was so readable and interesting. Recommended.

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Jan 21, 2016 Tanya rated it liked it · review of another edition

I thought this book would start with the advent of The Pill, but it didn't, which surprised and pleased me. Highly informative read about the women in this country who fought battles large and small for women's rights. Take away piece of trivia: I had no idea Gloria Steinem got married in Wilma Mankiller's home.

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Mar 23, 2015 Robyn Grad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It took me a long time to pick this up to read--it was a gift. So glad I did. The style of quoting people without delving too much into their stories bothered me (Barbara Winslow--guess I'll have to look up your research!) but the whole era (ERA) in context is extremely well done. I highly recommend it.

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Feb 15, 2015 TeriC rated it liked it · review of another edition

I was amazed to realize I lived through the beginning and didn't even realize it.

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May 24, 2009 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the book that I helped research in 2005/2006, and interviewed a whole bunch of women for. It comes out this October - I can't wait to read it!

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Oct 11, 2017 Emily Whittington rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is easy to read and filled with anecdotes that show how far women have come, persevered and most importantly how strong this gender is. Two that come to mind are Lorena Weeks refusing to lift her typewriter which was over 30 pounds making it fall under the law restricting how heavy objects can be that women can lift which prevented her getting a promotion. The other being Rose Ann Vuich ringing a bell in the Senate every time a speaker addressed his colleagues as "gentlemen". This book ...more

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Mar 28, 2018 Jen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about women's history that I didn't know. The author put tons of research into this and it shows. However, I wish she had included more about queer women and trans women, because they were part of this amazing journey, too. The chapter on the civil rights movement was more than I was expecting, so I don't see why there couldn't have been a chapter on LGBT+ movement.

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Jan 15, 2019 Megan Mills rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Truly a must read if you're interested in how we got to now in women's history.

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Jul 04, 2018 Gwen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was an incredible read. Easy to access, full of stories that make me really feel the times. I feel like I kept bringing up what I was reading to everyone I meet. Sometimes more than once depending on what part of the book I was currently on. Definitely a book to read and then discuss with people.

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Jan 15, 2014 Gail Goetschius rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an important book filled with information that everyone should know. Although I was only nine in 1960 and unaware of the movement for the first few years I have followed it avidly for most of my life. However, there was plenty I did not know.

For one thing I did not know, or conveniently forgot how abrasive some factions of the early movement were. They seemed to want to do away with family and men in general. Perhaps this is why some women my age refuse to identify as feminists. I see it This is an important book filled with information that everyone should know. Although I was only nine in 1960 and unaware of the movement for the first few years I have followed it avidly for most of my life. However, there was plenty I did not know.

For one thing I did not know, or conveniently forgot how abrasive some factions of the early movement were. They seemed to want to do away with family and men in general. Perhaps this is why some women my age refuse to identify as feminists. I see it as an issue of awkward growing pains.

I thought it was very interesting to see that women's refusal to acknowledge that women are not treated equally has a long history. Even when it was perfectly legal to bar women from some professions and have different pay scales for men and women the vast majority of women did not think women faced professional prejudice.

I remember blaming Phyllis Schlafly for the failure of ERA and Gail Collins pretty much agrees. I found that interesting. I never knew how close we came to universal childcare and found the politics of that fascinating. Evidently Nixon vetoed the bill saying it was anti family and encouraging communist beliefs. He did this to please conservatives who were angered over his planned trip to China.

Collins addresses recent concerns about girls out performing boys in high school and college. She points out that after college these trends reverse to the more traditional with men earning more and being promoted more and faster.

Her theme is celebratory about the great gains women have made and that is patently obvious. She also points to several areas we need to continue working on. We need to continue to work on equal pay for equal work, getting more women in government and CEO positions, and equalizing the efforts put in to raise children and take care of a house.

Collins's careful recounting of the history of women's rights is scrupulously documented and enriched with interviews of the brave women who changed the world for all of us. It's an important book to read, and of course beautifully written.

...more

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Sep 12, 2010 John rated it really liked it · 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

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Nov 03, 2012 Julie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Grrr...interesting. The first part of this book was slightly infuriating -- not to mention I was totally PMS'ing when I read it. (The author would probably not appreciate this note, but it's true!) Collins tries to tell the story of women's oppression in the U.S., and how suffragists and feminists rose up to fight back. She writes in sweeping generalities, without any thought or comment as to how women's roles may have evolved naturally (last time I checked, only women were "allowed" to give bir ...more

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About Gail Collins

Gail Collins

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Gail Collins was the Editorial Page Editor of The New York Times from 2001 to January 1, 2007. She was the first woman Editorial Page Editor at the Times.

Born as Gail Gleason, Collins has a degree in journalism from Marquette University and an M.A. in government from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Beyond her work as a journalist, Collins has published several books; Scorpion Tongues: Gos ...more

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“[Ella Baker]'s second defining characteristic was her dislike of top-down leadership... 'She felt leaders were not appointed but the rose up. Someone will rise. Someone will emerge'. It was an attitude Baker shared with some of the older women in the movement.” — 2 likes

“How did I make a living? I haven't. I have eked out an existence." - Ella Baker” — 2 likes

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