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The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973
A comprehensive and engaging oral history of the decade that defined the feminist movement, including interviews with living icons and unsung heroes—from former Newsweek reporter and author of the “powerful and moving” ( New York Times ) Witness to the Revolution .
For lovers of both Barbie and Gloria Steinem, The Movement is the first oral history of the decade that built the modern feminist movement. Through the captivating individual voices of the people who lived it, The Movement tells the intimate inside story of what it felt like to be at the forefront of the modern feminist crusade, when women rejected thousands of years of custom and demanded the freedom to be who they wanted and needed to be.
This engaging history traces women’s awakening, organizing, and agitating between the years of 1963 and 1973, when a decentralized collection of people and events coalesced to create a spontaneous combustion. From Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique , to the underground abortion network the Janes, to Shirley Chisolm’s presidential campaign and Billie Jean King’s 1973 battle of the sexes, Bingham artfully weaves together the fragments of that explosion person by person, bringing to life the emotions of this personal, cultural, and political revolution. Artists and politicians, athletes and lawyers, Black and white, The Movement brings readers into the rooms where these women insisted on being treated as first class citizens, and in the process, changed the fabric of American life.
For lovers of both Barbie and Gloria Steinem, The Movement is the first oral history of the decade that built the modern feminist movement. Through the captivating individual voices of the people who lived it, The Movement tells the intimate inside story of what it felt like to be at the forefront of the modern feminist crusade, when women rejected thousands of years of custom and demanded the freedom to be who they wanted and needed to be.
This engaging history traces women’s awakening, organizing, and agitating between the years of 1963 and 1973, when a decentralized collection of people and events coalesced to create a spontaneous combustion. From Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique , to the underground abortion network the Janes, to Shirley Chisolm’s presidential campaign and Billie Jean King’s 1973 battle of the sexes, Bingham artfully weaves together the fragments of that explosion person by person, bringing to life the emotions of this personal, cultural, and political revolution. Artists and politicians, athletes and lawyers, Black and white, The Movement brings readers into the rooms where these women insisted on being treated as first class citizens, and in the process, changed the fabric of American life.
576 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2024
206 people are currently reading
10186 people want to read
About the author
Clara Bingham
5 books42 followersBingham was born in 1963 into a newspaper family in Louisville, Kentucky. She moved to New York City in 1968. She graduated from Harvard University in 1985 with a degree in History and Literature. At Harvard, she served as co-news editor of the Harvard Independent.
Bingham has written three books: 'Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul' (2016), 'Class Action: The Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law' (co-written with Laura Leedy Gansler 2002), which was adapted into the 2005 feature film, 'North Country'. 'Class Action' was a 2002 Los Angeles Times best book of the year and won the AAUW Speaking Out For Justice Award in 2007.
Bingham's first book was omen on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress' (1997).
As a Washington, D.C. correspondent for Newsweek magazine from 1989 to 1993, Bingham covered the George H. W. Bush administration leading up to and during the 1992 presidential election. Her writing has appeared widely in publications including, The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, Ms., Vogue, Talk Magazine, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, The Washington Monthly. She also worked as a stringer for United Press International in Papua New Guinea.
Bingham also worked as a press secretary for the 1988 presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.
Bingham wrote an exposé about the Air Force Academy rape scandal for Vanity Fair in 2003, which earned her the 2004 Exceptional Merit in Media Award (EMMA) given by the National Women's Political Caucus. The article was anthologized in the 2004 edition of Best American Crime Writing. In January 2016, Investigation Discovery's Vanity Fair Confidential series featured Bingham in its one-hour program about the rape scandal.
While reporting a story in West Virginia, Bingham, a Kentucky native, witnessed the destructive effects of mountaintop removal coal mining for the first time. Afterwards, she spent several years producing The Last Mountain (directed by Bill Haney), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, screened in theaters in over 60 American cities, and won the International Documentary Association's Pare Lorentz Award
Bingham has written three books: 'Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul' (2016), 'Class Action: The Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law' (co-written with Laura Leedy Gansler 2002), which was adapted into the 2005 feature film, 'North Country'. 'Class Action' was a 2002 Los Angeles Times best book of the year and won the AAUW Speaking Out For Justice Award in 2007.
Bingham's first book was omen on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress' (1997).
As a Washington, D.C. correspondent for Newsweek magazine from 1989 to 1993, Bingham covered the George H. W. Bush administration leading up to and during the 1992 presidential election. Her writing has appeared widely in publications including, The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, Ms., Vogue, Talk Magazine, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, The Washington Monthly. She also worked as a stringer for United Press International in Papua New Guinea.
Bingham also worked as a press secretary for the 1988 presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.
Bingham wrote an exposé about the Air Force Academy rape scandal for Vanity Fair in 2003, which earned her the 2004 Exceptional Merit in Media Award (EMMA) given by the National Women's Political Caucus. The article was anthologized in the 2004 edition of Best American Crime Writing. In January 2016, Investigation Discovery's Vanity Fair Confidential series featured Bingham in its one-hour program about the rape scandal.
While reporting a story in West Virginia, Bingham, a Kentucky native, witnessed the destructive effects of mountaintop removal coal mining for the first time. Afterwards, she spent several years producing The Last Mountain (directed by Bill Haney), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, screened in theaters in over 60 American cities, and won the International Documentary Association's Pare Lorentz Award
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
August 4, 2024
The Movement by Clara Bingham is a collection of oral histories from women active in the women’s liberation movement. It is presented in chronological order from 1963 to 1973.
Reliving this history was such a revelation; it riled my blood and made me appreciate the hard work of women who made my life choices possible.
In 1963 I was in Sixth Grade and in 1973 I had been married for a year. I remember this history as it played out.
In 1972, I dropped out of college to marry. We both worked as he attended seminary. The women at my workplace took me under their wing. Widows warned me to get credit in my name, one telling how she could not get a car loan after her husband’s death. Another coworker discovered she wasn’t paid as much as the man who had held the position before her. She was told it was because he had a family to support, but she had a husband to support her.
I remember the fear people had about ERA. Would men and women have to share bathrooms? Would women be drafted into the armed services?
Roaming the stacks at the seminary, I discovered and read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and other feminist literature.
In 1975, my husband graduated and was in his first pastorate. Parishioners asked if we were planning on having children now and were surprised when I said I was returning to school the next semester. Some didn’t understand, while other women congratulated me. It was rare for a woman to return to school after she married.
I graduated in 1978. At that time, my husband’s conservative parishioners believed that the Bible forbade women from wearing pants, and they couldn’t tolerate the idea of a woman’s voice in the pulpit. (Before my husband’s retirement, there were more women going into ministry than men. Women have always done the work in the church; now they pastor them.)
I saw how societal attitudes changed. My mother-in-law, a good Methodist who was against smoking and gambling and taking the Lord’s name in vain, told me she supported a women’s right to abortion.
The narratives in The Movement are from diverse women who fought for equality in the workplace, academia, education, sports, and politics; for racial and gender equality; and for the freedom to control their own bodies.
It was a civil rights movement, a women’s movement, a Puerto Rican movement, an American Indian movement, an antiwar movement, a student movement. And what you felt is that you were part of the movement. And I felt it was just a question of what people chose to emphasize, but all of our interests were deeply connected. Heather Book quoted in The Movement by Clara Bingham
The book refreshed my understanding of how special interest groups came to be born. After the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Black Power arose. Black women were sidelined, and they started their own movement. The white women’s liberation movement didn’t want to be stereotyped as Lesbians, which birthed a Lesbian rights movement. Each special interest group had to create their own movement.
In 1960, it was illegal in most states for doctors to prescribe birth control to unmarried women, and the right for married women to obtain birth control wasn’t constitutionally protected in every state until…1965… from The Movement by Clara Bingham
Abortion and a woman’s control over her body was a main focus of The Movement. Poor women and immigrants were sterilized with federal funds! Women did not have choices about how they gave birth. Abortions were illegal and dangerous. My aunt had an abortion in the late 1940s. Mom told me she was dropped off in the country, blindfolded, and returned to the crossroads afterwards.
Men don’t get pregnant, men don’t bear children. Men just make laws. demonstrator quoted by Susan Brownmiller in The Movement
So many things are covered: Our Bodies, Ourselves, the rise of Now, the publication of Ms. magazine, protesting Miss America, voting rights, affirmative action, the right to privacy, the ERA, women’s sports, the rise of Women’s Studies, gender discrimination.
I appreciated reading about Shirley Chisholm’s political career. She is quoted about how men in politics “submit to forces they know are wrong and fail to stand up for what they believe.” Some things don’t change.
Today we are dealing with a backlash by men bent on retracting women’s hard won freedom and rights. This book could not have come out at a better time.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
Reliving this history was such a revelation; it riled my blood and made me appreciate the hard work of women who made my life choices possible.
In 1963 I was in Sixth Grade and in 1973 I had been married for a year. I remember this history as it played out.
In 1972, I dropped out of college to marry. We both worked as he attended seminary. The women at my workplace took me under their wing. Widows warned me to get credit in my name, one telling how she could not get a car loan after her husband’s death. Another coworker discovered she wasn’t paid as much as the man who had held the position before her. She was told it was because he had a family to support, but she had a husband to support her.
I remember the fear people had about ERA. Would men and women have to share bathrooms? Would women be drafted into the armed services?
Roaming the stacks at the seminary, I discovered and read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and other feminist literature.
In 1975, my husband graduated and was in his first pastorate. Parishioners asked if we were planning on having children now and were surprised when I said I was returning to school the next semester. Some didn’t understand, while other women congratulated me. It was rare for a woman to return to school after she married.
I graduated in 1978. At that time, my husband’s conservative parishioners believed that the Bible forbade women from wearing pants, and they couldn’t tolerate the idea of a woman’s voice in the pulpit. (Before my husband’s retirement, there were more women going into ministry than men. Women have always done the work in the church; now they pastor them.)
I saw how societal attitudes changed. My mother-in-law, a good Methodist who was against smoking and gambling and taking the Lord’s name in vain, told me she supported a women’s right to abortion.
The narratives in The Movement are from diverse women who fought for equality in the workplace, academia, education, sports, and politics; for racial and gender equality; and for the freedom to control their own bodies.
It was a civil rights movement, a women’s movement, a Puerto Rican movement, an American Indian movement, an antiwar movement, a student movement. And what you felt is that you were part of the movement. And I felt it was just a question of what people chose to emphasize, but all of our interests were deeply connected. Heather Book quoted in The Movement by Clara Bingham
The book refreshed my understanding of how special interest groups came to be born. After the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Black Power arose. Black women were sidelined, and they started their own movement. The white women’s liberation movement didn’t want to be stereotyped as Lesbians, which birthed a Lesbian rights movement. Each special interest group had to create their own movement.
In 1960, it was illegal in most states for doctors to prescribe birth control to unmarried women, and the right for married women to obtain birth control wasn’t constitutionally protected in every state until…1965… from The Movement by Clara Bingham
Abortion and a woman’s control over her body was a main focus of The Movement. Poor women and immigrants were sterilized with federal funds! Women did not have choices about how they gave birth. Abortions were illegal and dangerous. My aunt had an abortion in the late 1940s. Mom told me she was dropped off in the country, blindfolded, and returned to the crossroads afterwards.
Men don’t get pregnant, men don’t bear children. Men just make laws. demonstrator quoted by Susan Brownmiller in The Movement
So many things are covered: Our Bodies, Ourselves, the rise of Now, the publication of Ms. magazine, protesting Miss America, voting rights, affirmative action, the right to privacy, the ERA, women’s sports, the rise of Women’s Studies, gender discrimination.
I appreciated reading about Shirley Chisholm’s political career. She is quoted about how men in politics “submit to forces they know are wrong and fail to stand up for what they believe.” Some things don’t change.
Today we are dealing with a backlash by men bent on retracting women’s hard won freedom and rights. This book could not have come out at a better time.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
July 31, 2024
I'm a feminist. I enjoy reading theory as well as books about the history of the movement. This book should've been right up my alley. While it's undeniably comprehensive and a wonderful resource for anyone who's doing research, the format isn't engaging. While I appreciate hearing first-hand accounts from the actual people involved, I never feel like it offers anything I couldn't get out of a straightforward book about the topic.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for a free review copy.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for a free review copy.
Want to read
April 28, 2024So many fascinating history books coming out these days! 😍
April 14, 2025
A fascinating, layered, complex and deep look at the women’s equal rights movement. I found the way the author built the history incredible, and while it was a little overwhelming at times, an essential listen to the history of the women’s movement-and a stark reminder that this was less than 65 years ago.
September 15, 2025
Listened to as an audiobook, thinking that an oral history would be best absorbed by listening, but I struggled with it. It felt like a huge collage of tiny clips. I wish there was more context building for each section, that each quote was a longer-form oral history (not broken up), and that each section stood alone thematically rather than chronologically, which may be most accurate, but made it difficult to understand/absorb the specific story being told.
What I did appreciate is that this was not that long ago; I think I take for granted that women's rights would have come around with or without the movement, but am not so sure. This book showed how hard-fought it was. I also thought that the book did a great job of articulating the diversity of thought within the movement.
What I did appreciate is that this was not that long ago; I think I take for granted that women's rights would have come around with or without the movement, but am not so sure. This book showed how hard-fought it was. I also thought that the book did a great job of articulating the diversity of thought within the movement.
Want to read
March 4, 2025should read this as retribution for loving the Didion essay that tore down the women's movement at this time. lol
December 18, 2024
Like Bingham's previous book, Witness to the Revolution, which focuses on 1968, The Movement is part oral history, part compilation of statements and articles from participants in the events it chroncicles. It does a good job identifying key events and contributors. Came out feeling it was a bit diffuse; the stories are ones I know well and I found myself needing to fill in some background, so its probably not the best place to start. She does a good job with the politics of race and the lesbian movement. Definitely belongs on the Sixties femnism shelf.
July 2, 2024
I won this book in a giveaway! Wow am I glad I did. I was born in 1991 and thought I knew a lot about women’s history. This book has introduced me to so many people and stories I had never heard of. Just two chapters in my eyes have been opened to the differences of hardships between white and black women in the 60’s. Highly recommend this book! Looking forward to reading more!
July 4, 2025
5 stars, but I wish I could give this 10. Just an absolutely phenomenal book. Clara Bingham's narrative of women's liberation through the oral histories of the women who drove it fundamentally reshaped my understanding of the scale at which the second wave of feminism changed things and the enormity of the debt our generation owes to them. After reading this, i think maybe we hear disproportionately about the movement's shortcomings in a way that does a disservice to everything it achieved. The way this book chronicles the legal battles these women fought, the efforts of reproductive rights activists like the Janes in Chicago, so much more - I can't say enough about how it illuminates how much they fought to achieve substantive equality and brought a change in consciousness to the nation. It's a movement we've been too quick to forget, in an era of rising conservatism and a rollback of women's rights.
On a different note, i think one of the biggest strengths of this book was how it detailed the deep divisions within, such as the fight between early leaders like Betty Friedan and the lesbians who were asked to conceal their sexuality, the tension between Black women who wanted to identify as feminists and those who felt it would be a betrayal of Black men and the civil rights movement, etc. It rings true in a time when infighting and failing to stay united has really inhibited efforts for social and political change.
TLDR: phenomenal piece of history that showed me how little I knew and the debt we owe to these women
On a different note, i think one of the biggest strengths of this book was how it detailed the deep divisions within, such as the fight between early leaders like Betty Friedan and the lesbians who were asked to conceal their sexuality, the tension between Black women who wanted to identify as feminists and those who felt it would be a betrayal of Black men and the civil rights movement, etc. It rings true in a time when infighting and failing to stay united has really inhibited efforts for social and political change.
TLDR: phenomenal piece of history that showed me how little I knew and the debt we owe to these women
September 8, 2025
Whew. This was like reading a four hour documentary on the feminist movement. I certainly appreciate the breadth. It should have been obvious to me before, but the amount of nuance in the movement and the size and scope of the movement was crazy. It was quite a lift to get so many factions united behind a single idea to move the equality of ALL women forward. I have so much reverence and respect for those who fought so hard so that I can have things I take for granted, like a job in a man's world that supports my lifestyle independent of a husband. Overall, love and appreciate the leg work to write this book, but I didn't connect with the writing/editing style. I would've preferred a breakdown by subject instead of by timeline. There are so many players that it's difficult to keep straight without a reference guide nearby.
August 17, 2024
Bingham’s oral history tells the story of how the Women’s Liberation Movement began and ultimately thrived in the remarkable decade between 1963 and 1973. The words of more than 150 individuals are included in The Movement, but the incredibly important roles and words of Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, Billie Jean King, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg jump off the pages. An important book.
October 11, 2025
It look me forever to get through this book but it was worth it. I first decided to read it when women’s rights were being trampled on left and right in attempt to undo exactly what this book describes as our foot forward. Sometimes it was uplifting but other times it made me even more furious at the current state of things and the dismantling of all the hard work of those who fought for the freedoms I was able to experience most of my life… being about the same age as the author, I realize how my own education lacked the information about current events outlined in this feminist history. This is an incredible recorded collection of the strides hard fought to remove us from the patriarchy that is so fragile that they are once again trampling an entire gender back into the boxes inside which they think we belong. I’d highly recommend this one and wouldn’t dismiss owning it in print and re-reading it in that format though the multi-narrated version was very well done.
May 25, 2025
Timely and inspirational. It’s a history of how woman fought an uphill battle and made significant change. It shows how being an ally, inclusive, and radical bring change. A movement needs its moderates and radicals to succeed. There needs to be space for different groups to come together and not force everyone into a single ideology. It shows how pop culture, sports, and media influence everyday people.
Read this book!
Read this book!
July 5, 2025
Absolutely excellent! Intersectional, comprehensive, LGBTQ inclusive, and fascinating from beginning to end. I highly recommend the audiobook, which features multiple narrators. The contributor’s section at the end is a fascinating reminder of how many women worked so hard for our equality. So many sheros!!!! I’m full of gratitude.
March 31, 2025
This is a must read for a clearer understanding of the path that was paved before us, allowing women to have the luxury of choice over who we want to be. And to those women who gave us these freedoms, thank you.
May 13, 2025
Absolutely required reading for anyone interested in US Women's History.
January 29, 2025
4/5: honestly a really good non-fiction book! i think the hyper specificity of the study as well as the organization really made it. being very specific about studying one slice of the second wave of feminism really worked in the author’s favor, and it clearly showed the immense change over that decade. additionally, it can be hit or miss to use narrative history in your own non-fiction book (fear of potentially being seen as a cop-out), but i think it worked here bc the dialogue between different feminists was relevant to each chapter grouping
July 2, 2025
4.5/5
August 31, 2024
Not a light easy read but well worth it. Amazing to read the history again and look at today’s world and how we are going backwards.
November 16, 2024
4+ stars. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to continue with this one after the election, but I’m so glad I did.
September 20, 2025
4 ⭐️: this book was very informative and dove deeper into topics that I didn’t know much about. Not a 5 star because I didn’t love the format and really wished it was organized by topic rather than chronologically.
October 16, 2024
A very well written book of feminism. I wouldn’t call myself a feminist but this was a great read! Very informative and intriguing.
March 18, 2025
i loved this!! super informative and loved the first hand accounts and various ways they examined feminism from the education & legal system, arts, and healthcare sector etc. I wish the backgrounds of the people mentioned were at the beginning of the book to reference instead of at the back of the book.
February 6, 2025
The author interviewed many people involved with the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s-70s. The book proceeds chronologically from 1963 with the publication of 'The Feminine Mystique' and ends with the abortion decision of Roe vs. Wade in 1973.
The book mainly consists of very short snippets from the interviews, interwoven to highlight specific episodes in the movement. There is not a lot of extra context provided. It is a little like watching the raw videos of interviews done by Ken Burns for one of his documentaries before he builds it into a complete documentary.
Consequently, the book is best read by those already somewhat familiar with the movement and the time period. The interviewees are mainly talking about their personal experiences, which provides a real 'You Are There' vibe. They don't usually provide much context for what they are saying. There are footnotes interspersed which lead to more context in the back of each chapter, which requires the reader to page back and forth to get the complete story.
Nevertheless, this deep dive into the inner working, turmoil, consciousness-raising and fits and starts of the movement is fascinating. It's good that the author conducted these interviews before some of these people are no longer available. For those who didn't live through this period, it would be good to read a more scholarly account of the movement and its time before turning to this book.
The book mainly consists of very short snippets from the interviews, interwoven to highlight specific episodes in the movement. There is not a lot of extra context provided. It is a little like watching the raw videos of interviews done by Ken Burns for one of his documentaries before he builds it into a complete documentary.
Consequently, the book is best read by those already somewhat familiar with the movement and the time period. The interviewees are mainly talking about their personal experiences, which provides a real 'You Are There' vibe. They don't usually provide much context for what they are saying. There are footnotes interspersed which lead to more context in the back of each chapter, which requires the reader to page back and forth to get the complete story.
Nevertheless, this deep dive into the inner working, turmoil, consciousness-raising and fits and starts of the movement is fascinating. It's good that the author conducted these interviews before some of these people are no longer available. For those who didn't live through this period, it would be good to read a more scholarly account of the movement and its time before turning to this book.
February 21, 2025
This book caught my eye at a local bookstore and I decided to get it on a whim since I’ve been wanting to read more history and was intrigued by the time frame, in which my grandmother would be been approximately my age and my mom was young. It was the longest it’s taken me to read a book in a while but I found it very interesting and informative. It was also made a longer read since I was flipping to the back to read about the Cast of Characters as they arise throughout to get additional biographical information. I also tried at first to write a short blurb next to the names of these people as they appeared until I realized there were too many to do so. It’s a very comprehensive list, which I appreciated because I feel like a lot of integral figures during this movement have been forgotten.
What sets this book apart from many other historical nonfiction books is that the author Clara Bingham chose to include very little narration. Instead, she chose to structure the book almost exclusively on firsthand accounts conducted by a series of interviews she did, as well as compiling other sources from the time such as newspaper articles, television quotes, legal documents, and more. The sheer volume of material would’ve been so much work to gather and organize into this book and Bingham did a great job of doing so both chronologically and by topic. She covered so many related to feminism at the time- the legal system, sports (tennis specifically), art, academics, journalism, politics, health (mostly abortion), racism, homophobia, literature, the history of feminism, and general cultural shifts.
The second wave of feminism can often be dismissed as overly focusing on the plight of married, white, middle-class women with families. And certainly, a large portion of the movement consisted of these women, especially in the movement's infancy. However, this book adds more nuance to the conversation, giving voice to those often forgotten. We simply couldn’t have had more progressive third-wave (and fourth-wave, etc.) feminism if it weren’t for the enormous shifts during the second wave, which Bingham classifies largely between 1963- 1973.
Bingham begins by introducing Betty Friedan’s epochal The Feminine Mystique and ends with the National Black Feminist Organization convening in early 1974. This highlights the transition from a more homogenous movement to one that branched and split until there was a place within it for so many more people. The contributions of nonwhite (primarily Black) women and queer should not be understated. I was so glad to learn more about women who were integral to the movement, like Shirley Chisholm, Pauli Murray, Florynce Kennedy, Margaret Sloan, Faith Ringgold, Margo Jefferson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and others. I’d heard of some Black feminists at the time but this made me much more familiar with their work. Their plight was particularly difficult in the second wave's early years. Black women often toed the line between collaborating with white women who better understood the struggles of women but were ignorant to their racism, and allying with Black men, who understood race but often excluded women in their fight for civil rights. Eventually, many Black women formed their own groups so they could feel a stronger kinship with those who understood their intersectional identities.
Similarly, I learned a lot about queer feminists too. Many are overshadowed now, despite the accusations at the time by many who tried to dismiss the women’s movement as just a bunch of lesbians because they felt it easier to reject it by leaning on society's homophobia. Aligning oneself with lesbians risked adding yet another oppressed group to your identity. However, women like Billie Jean King, Rita Mae Brown, Karla Jay, and Ivy Bottini were able to embrace their queer identities and thus inspire others to do the same during a time when it was seen as unacceptable. Many queer women came out and found a place, if not in the broader feminist movement, then in one of the smaller groups that formed, as many Black women did.
There were so many groups that emerged from the second wave, but many had their own more specific issues they understandably wanted to focus on, divided by levels of extremity, race, sexual orientation, occupation, cause, region, etc. Some include NOW, NFBO, Radicalesbains, FAP, and the NWPC. While many different groups formed due to division among people within the same broader organization, many ultimately moved progress further down the road for so many people who didn’t (or still don’t) realize how much they’ve benefited from their tireless work. Myself included sometimes, especially before reading this book.
I had some cursory knowledge of this time but gained so much more knowledge about pivotal historical events, such as Chisholm's run for president, the Battle of the Sexes, RBG's bringing sex discrimination cases to the Supreme Court, the Janes abortion network, and the slow death of the ERA. And I learned so much about important events and shifts I had no idea about. I feel much better educated on the work of the women who came before me, giving me a newfound appreciation for the opportunities I have today. We have a long way to go in terms of gender equality but we've come so much further than some women in this period may have ever dreamed. Simply learning about and acknowledging these efforts is a great step to finding a path forward.
I could write so much more about The Movement but I'd end up writing a whole essay. I did, however, underline a lot of quotes that stood out to me throughout. I think part of why this book resonated with me so much is that I find it oddly comforting and validating to be reminded how messy history can be. What we are living through today may, in some ways, feel new but it often reflects the past in some way. And there are lessons to be learned there. And many things to be grateful for.
I probably won't be rereading this book anytime soon but I would like to someday to refresh my knowledge, or even just dip into it as a resource. It was a long (and not a light read) but I really enjoyed it.
What sets this book apart from many other historical nonfiction books is that the author Clara Bingham chose to include very little narration. Instead, she chose to structure the book almost exclusively on firsthand accounts conducted by a series of interviews she did, as well as compiling other sources from the time such as newspaper articles, television quotes, legal documents, and more. The sheer volume of material would’ve been so much work to gather and organize into this book and Bingham did a great job of doing so both chronologically and by topic. She covered so many related to feminism at the time- the legal system, sports (tennis specifically), art, academics, journalism, politics, health (mostly abortion), racism, homophobia, literature, the history of feminism, and general cultural shifts.
The second wave of feminism can often be dismissed as overly focusing on the plight of married, white, middle-class women with families. And certainly, a large portion of the movement consisted of these women, especially in the movement's infancy. However, this book adds more nuance to the conversation, giving voice to those often forgotten. We simply couldn’t have had more progressive third-wave (and fourth-wave, etc.) feminism if it weren’t for the enormous shifts during the second wave, which Bingham classifies largely between 1963- 1973.
Bingham begins by introducing Betty Friedan’s epochal The Feminine Mystique and ends with the National Black Feminist Organization convening in early 1974. This highlights the transition from a more homogenous movement to one that branched and split until there was a place within it for so many more people. The contributions of nonwhite (primarily Black) women and queer should not be understated. I was so glad to learn more about women who were integral to the movement, like Shirley Chisholm, Pauli Murray, Florynce Kennedy, Margaret Sloan, Faith Ringgold, Margo Jefferson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and others. I’d heard of some Black feminists at the time but this made me much more familiar with their work. Their plight was particularly difficult in the second wave's early years. Black women often toed the line between collaborating with white women who better understood the struggles of women but were ignorant to their racism, and allying with Black men, who understood race but often excluded women in their fight for civil rights. Eventually, many Black women formed their own groups so they could feel a stronger kinship with those who understood their intersectional identities.
Similarly, I learned a lot about queer feminists too. Many are overshadowed now, despite the accusations at the time by many who tried to dismiss the women’s movement as just a bunch of lesbians because they felt it easier to reject it by leaning on society's homophobia. Aligning oneself with lesbians risked adding yet another oppressed group to your identity. However, women like Billie Jean King, Rita Mae Brown, Karla Jay, and Ivy Bottini were able to embrace their queer identities and thus inspire others to do the same during a time when it was seen as unacceptable. Many queer women came out and found a place, if not in the broader feminist movement, then in one of the smaller groups that formed, as many Black women did.
There were so many groups that emerged from the second wave, but many had their own more specific issues they understandably wanted to focus on, divided by levels of extremity, race, sexual orientation, occupation, cause, region, etc. Some include NOW, NFBO, Radicalesbains, FAP, and the NWPC. While many different groups formed due to division among people within the same broader organization, many ultimately moved progress further down the road for so many people who didn’t (or still don’t) realize how much they’ve benefited from their tireless work. Myself included sometimes, especially before reading this book.
I had some cursory knowledge of this time but gained so much more knowledge about pivotal historical events, such as Chisholm's run for president, the Battle of the Sexes, RBG's bringing sex discrimination cases to the Supreme Court, the Janes abortion network, and the slow death of the ERA. And I learned so much about important events and shifts I had no idea about. I feel much better educated on the work of the women who came before me, giving me a newfound appreciation for the opportunities I have today. We have a long way to go in terms of gender equality but we've come so much further than some women in this period may have ever dreamed. Simply learning about and acknowledging these efforts is a great step to finding a path forward.
I could write so much more about The Movement but I'd end up writing a whole essay. I did, however, underline a lot of quotes that stood out to me throughout. I think part of why this book resonated with me so much is that I find it oddly comforting and validating to be reminded how messy history can be. What we are living through today may, in some ways, feel new but it often reflects the past in some way. And there are lessons to be learned there. And many things to be grateful for.
I probably won't be rereading this book anytime soon but I would like to someday to refresh my knowledge, or even just dip into it as a resource. It was a long (and not a light read) but I really enjoyed it.
April 30, 2025
It's very informative, and I do like that they addressed the issue of race/feminism and the problems that were going on internally with the movement. And I like how the book is basically little vignettes and opinions from women who were influential in the feminist movement (I mean, hearing what RBG had to say and remembered is just cool). That being said though, this was a SLOG. It may just be me (I think this has convinced me I really am not a non-fiction reader). But I had to force myself to finish this, which is disheartening as I am a feminist and care deeply for the issues around this movement
September 8, 2024
1963-1973 transformed America. The Movement by Clara Bingham provides a comprehensive oral history of women's crusade to be seen and heard. I had read short essays regarding the women's liberation movement, but had never run across a text that wove everything together in such a cohesive, meaningful way. Learned a lot about the struggles and dedication of the many activists who played crucial roles in women gaining respect and the rights they deserved. Make sure to read the footnotes; I tend to skip those but glad I didn't this time.
December 31, 2024
The Movement is an epic oral history of the decade that defined the feminist movement in the US. Clara Bingham spent two and a half years interviewing eye witnesses to some of the historic events that took place in the decade from 1963 - 1973. For me this made the book. It's one thing to read about a historical event and quite another to hear the people who were actually THERE tell their experiences. This book covers a LOT of information from a LOT of people - there is a helpful "cast of characters" section at the end of the book with a brief description of each person. There are also several photos included in the middle of the book. As someone born in 1979, it's hard to imagine living in the world these women lived in before the feminist movement when it was legal to fire a woman for being pregnant or tell a woman to their face that you would never consider hiring a woman. For women in college or law school to be told "you're taking a man's place here." I think the word revolution is often thrown around casually, but this decade was a revolution. Minorities and women were sick of being second class citizens and were determined to make society change - and many of those changes are discussed in this book. It's not a super easy read (although the oral history style makes it more readable in my opinion) but it's a very important read. Younger women need to see how things were before the women's movement and how quickly things can go back if we're not careful. This was a great book to end 2024 on!
There were a LOT of quotes I liked:
"A. Philip Randolph, the leader of the march, accepted an invitation to speak before the National Press Club, which at the time excluded all women reporters...If they were covering something, they had to do it from the balcony. When these women protested to [civil rights leader] Bayard Rustin about Mr. Randolph's accepting this invitation, he said, 'What's wrong with the balcony?' And they said, 'What's wrong with the back of the bus?'" (p. 10) [The struggles of Black women in the Civil Rights movement was eye-opening and sad to me.]
[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 added the term 'sex' to prevent racial and gender discrimination in hiring] "Various women arose to speak for the amendment, and with each argument advanced, the men in the House laughed harder. When [Martha Griffiths] arose, I began by saying, 'I presume that if there had been any necessity to point out that women were a second-class sex, the laughter would have proved it,' There was no further laughter...[and that addition to the amendment passed]" (p. 22)
"When doctors first organized as a group and founded the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847, the male doctors surveyed the landscape of reproductive care workers and phased out the existing community of female midwives and ob-gyn nurses. Most male doctors at the time did not have much expertise in pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion, which had been left to the female sphere. The AMA then began the process of criminalizing abortion and standardizing medical education, which essentially cut women practitioners out." (footnote on p. 43)
"Like most urban hospitals, Chicago's Cook County hospital devoted an entire ward to women suffering from medical complications caused by illegal abortions. By the mid-sixties, the hospital treated one hundred women with abortion-related medical emergencies every week." (footnote on p. 43)
[Marilyn Webb was working on her PhD at the University of Chicago and needed professors for her dissertation committee. Every professor she asked assumed that she would sleep with them in exchange. So she quit her program and moved away.] "Encouraged by the #MeToo movement, Marilyn Webb wrote the president of the University of Chicago in 2017, told her story, and asked the university to remedy her past injustice. After rewriting her previously published book to fit a dissertation committee's requirements, Webb was awarded her PhD at age seventy-six and walked in the graduation ceremony with the class of 2019." (footnote on p. 68)
"Involuntary and coerced sterilization of Black, Latina, Native American, and poor women in government-funded hospitals and clinics were prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century and expanded in the 1960s. Laws allowing involuntary sterilization existed in thirty-one states and were even more draconian in the South...Between 1964 and 1966, 64 percent of the women sterilized in North Carolina were African American. In 1961, when Fannie Lou Hamer needed medical attention for a uterine cyst, she was given a hysterectomy at a Mississippi hospital without her consent. Hamer...later testified against Mississippi's sterilization law, calling the procedure a 'Mississippi appendectomy.'" footnote on p. 156)
p. 254-255 The FBI stole a member of NYC NOW's wallet to have a meeting and offer her $750 a month to spy on the NYC chapter of NOW.
"I think that Ms. was seen as mainstream by radical feminists and seen as radical by most other people. Ms. had a foot in both worlds." (p. 354)
"The ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] was not considered that revolutionary. Richard Nixon supported it, and it was in the Republican platform right up to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Then the counterrevolution, led by Phyllis Schlafly, very successfully defeated the ERA. We did not see it coming." (p. 379)
There were a LOT of quotes I liked:
"A. Philip Randolph, the leader of the march, accepted an invitation to speak before the National Press Club, which at the time excluded all women reporters...If they were covering something, they had to do it from the balcony. When these women protested to [civil rights leader] Bayard Rustin about Mr. Randolph's accepting this invitation, he said, 'What's wrong with the balcony?' And they said, 'What's wrong with the back of the bus?'" (p. 10) [The struggles of Black women in the Civil Rights movement was eye-opening and sad to me.]
[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 added the term 'sex' to prevent racial and gender discrimination in hiring] "Various women arose to speak for the amendment, and with each argument advanced, the men in the House laughed harder. When [Martha Griffiths] arose, I began by saying, 'I presume that if there had been any necessity to point out that women were a second-class sex, the laughter would have proved it,' There was no further laughter...[and that addition to the amendment passed]" (p. 22)
"When doctors first organized as a group and founded the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847, the male doctors surveyed the landscape of reproductive care workers and phased out the existing community of female midwives and ob-gyn nurses. Most male doctors at the time did not have much expertise in pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion, which had been left to the female sphere. The AMA then began the process of criminalizing abortion and standardizing medical education, which essentially cut women practitioners out." (footnote on p. 43)
"Like most urban hospitals, Chicago's Cook County hospital devoted an entire ward to women suffering from medical complications caused by illegal abortions. By the mid-sixties, the hospital treated one hundred women with abortion-related medical emergencies every week." (footnote on p. 43)
[Marilyn Webb was working on her PhD at the University of Chicago and needed professors for her dissertation committee. Every professor she asked assumed that she would sleep with them in exchange. So she quit her program and moved away.] "Encouraged by the #MeToo movement, Marilyn Webb wrote the president of the University of Chicago in 2017, told her story, and asked the university to remedy her past injustice. After rewriting her previously published book to fit a dissertation committee's requirements, Webb was awarded her PhD at age seventy-six and walked in the graduation ceremony with the class of 2019." (footnote on p. 68)
"Involuntary and coerced sterilization of Black, Latina, Native American, and poor women in government-funded hospitals and clinics were prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century and expanded in the 1960s. Laws allowing involuntary sterilization existed in thirty-one states and were even more draconian in the South...Between 1964 and 1966, 64 percent of the women sterilized in North Carolina were African American. In 1961, when Fannie Lou Hamer needed medical attention for a uterine cyst, she was given a hysterectomy at a Mississippi hospital without her consent. Hamer...later testified against Mississippi's sterilization law, calling the procedure a 'Mississippi appendectomy.'" footnote on p. 156)
p. 254-255 The FBI stole a member of NYC NOW's wallet to have a meeting and offer her $750 a month to spy on the NYC chapter of NOW.
"I think that Ms. was seen as mainstream by radical feminists and seen as radical by most other people. Ms. had a foot in both worlds." (p. 354)
"The ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] was not considered that revolutionary. Richard Nixon supported it, and it was in the Republican platform right up to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Then the counterrevolution, led by Phyllis Schlafly, very successfully defeated the ERA. We did not see it coming." (p. 379)
November 2, 2024
4.5 stars, but I'll round up as I got a lot out of it.
This is an oral history of, well, just what the title says it's about. It's a series of 64 short chapters over 450-ish pages about various topics, issues, events, and turning points in the women's lib movement. Many of the words come from interviews Bingham personally did with the figures, and some (such as the parts from the late Betty Friedan) are her using from older interviews the person had done. There are also some news articles used as well.
An incomplete list of parts that struck my attention: 60% of women in college dropped out in the mid-1950s, and at that time women's average age at marriage dropped to 20. Griswold v. CT intersects with the movement, which - yeah, OK, that makes a ton of sense. ERA was initially opposed by women who wanted to maintain laws that protected women's labor positions. The 1964 sex amendment to the Civil Rights Act passed 168-133, with nearly a third of the House not voting on it. Early Vietnam protests included women chanting "women say yes to boys who say no." A 1965 WSJ article lampooned it by picturing (among other things): "A matronly vice president gleefully participating in an old office sport by chasing a male secretary around a big leather-topped desk" - It actually called it "an old office sport" like it was great. Stewardess filed a lawsuit as they could be grounded if they put on too much weight, and that of course meant they couldn't earn money. 10 states still outlawed un-marital sex. In Massachusetts it was a crime to receive info on birth control. Early consciousness raising groups were where women first learned that they weren't odd for faking orgasms. Talk of abortions also came out of these things. Black women were sometimes sterilized without consent, or even knowledge. Eldridge Cleaver once wrote of raping black women to work up the courage to rape white women. "Our Bodies, Our Selves" was a breakthrough in awareness of female medical and sexual issues. Male doctors had said female orgasms were based on the vagina. Birth could be done at home (but that was being outlawed), with drugs (common, but could have side effects) or with the Lamaze method (arising at this time). Women had been given pills with too much estrogen, which could cause cancer. Robin Morgan wrote "Goodbye to All That which was a declaration against much of the crap going on inside the left. Newsweek was sued by its female employees - and this was supposed to be the liberal weekly magazine. NYC banned men's only bars in 1970. New York state's laws on rape said a witness needed until 1974. There was a (re-)discovery of female artists and authors like Frida Kahlo and Zora Neale Hurston. The book "Sexual Politics" by Kate Millett took on sexism in the literary canon, and was a big moment of a book until the public learned Millett was a lesbian. Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eyes" came out about the same time, as did works by Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. There were women in the military, who wouldn't get the same stipend for their families as male soldiers did, until Frontiero v. Richardson. Women's Studies became a thing on college campuses. A 1972 article in Ms. magazine had 50-some prominent women publicly put their names to a letter to say they'd had abortions. (One of the women, Billie Jean King, didn't know her name was going to be on it. Her husband signed it for her and didn't tell her about it. Another signer was the mother of author Clara Bingham - a fact she didn't know at all until she researched this book!) Reed v. Reed was a key turning point in female jurisprudence. A national childcare bill that would put federal funding behind it went through Congress without too much difficulty, only for Nixon to unexpectedly veto it, using cultural war language (apparently egged on by Pat Buchanan) to rally support to his cause, especially since many conservatives were upset he was going to China. Eisenstadt v. Baird said that unmarried people had a right to birth control due to the right to privacy. In 1973, 50,000 male college students has sports scholarships, vs. 50 college women. The FBI had investigated women's lib for years, but shut down offices after Hoover died and there was no reason/evidence that the women's movements were trying to create an actual revolution.
Yeah, I got a lot out of it. Why did I say "only" 4.5 stars up top? Well, after that last paragraph, I'm wondering it a little myself. But it's hard to keep track of the names - there is a list of people and brief bios in back, but you're never introduced to them when you first encounter them, and you don't always want to flip to page 462 all the time. The book just kinda .... ends. No apparent reason - it didn't seem like the movement was even faltering - Bingham just stops in 1973. With both issues, I'm reminded of Eyes on the Prize, the oral history of the civil rights movement, which introduces people and gives some overall context so you feel the entire movement's arc. The ending in that book felt like an actual ending. This felt like Bingham hit a word count and stopped.
Still an excellent book. Definitely more 5/5 than 4/5.
This is an oral history of, well, just what the title says it's about. It's a series of 64 short chapters over 450-ish pages about various topics, issues, events, and turning points in the women's lib movement. Many of the words come from interviews Bingham personally did with the figures, and some (such as the parts from the late Betty Friedan) are her using from older interviews the person had done. There are also some news articles used as well.
An incomplete list of parts that struck my attention: 60% of women in college dropped out in the mid-1950s, and at that time women's average age at marriage dropped to 20. Griswold v. CT intersects with the movement, which - yeah, OK, that makes a ton of sense. ERA was initially opposed by women who wanted to maintain laws that protected women's labor positions. The 1964 sex amendment to the Civil Rights Act passed 168-133, with nearly a third of the House not voting on it. Early Vietnam protests included women chanting "women say yes to boys who say no." A 1965 WSJ article lampooned it by picturing (among other things): "A matronly vice president gleefully participating in an old office sport by chasing a male secretary around a big leather-topped desk" - It actually called it "an old office sport" like it was great. Stewardess filed a lawsuit as they could be grounded if they put on too much weight, and that of course meant they couldn't earn money. 10 states still outlawed un-marital sex. In Massachusetts it was a crime to receive info on birth control. Early consciousness raising groups were where women first learned that they weren't odd for faking orgasms. Talk of abortions also came out of these things. Black women were sometimes sterilized without consent, or even knowledge. Eldridge Cleaver once wrote of raping black women to work up the courage to rape white women. "Our Bodies, Our Selves" was a breakthrough in awareness of female medical and sexual issues. Male doctors had said female orgasms were based on the vagina. Birth could be done at home (but that was being outlawed), with drugs (common, but could have side effects) or with the Lamaze method (arising at this time). Women had been given pills with too much estrogen, which could cause cancer. Robin Morgan wrote "Goodbye to All That which was a declaration against much of the crap going on inside the left. Newsweek was sued by its female employees - and this was supposed to be the liberal weekly magazine. NYC banned men's only bars in 1970. New York state's laws on rape said a witness needed until 1974. There was a (re-)discovery of female artists and authors like Frida Kahlo and Zora Neale Hurston. The book "Sexual Politics" by Kate Millett took on sexism in the literary canon, and was a big moment of a book until the public learned Millett was a lesbian. Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eyes" came out about the same time, as did works by Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. There were women in the military, who wouldn't get the same stipend for their families as male soldiers did, until Frontiero v. Richardson. Women's Studies became a thing on college campuses. A 1972 article in Ms. magazine had 50-some prominent women publicly put their names to a letter to say they'd had abortions. (One of the women, Billie Jean King, didn't know her name was going to be on it. Her husband signed it for her and didn't tell her about it. Another signer was the mother of author Clara Bingham - a fact she didn't know at all until she researched this book!) Reed v. Reed was a key turning point in female jurisprudence. A national childcare bill that would put federal funding behind it went through Congress without too much difficulty, only for Nixon to unexpectedly veto it, using cultural war language (apparently egged on by Pat Buchanan) to rally support to his cause, especially since many conservatives were upset he was going to China. Eisenstadt v. Baird said that unmarried people had a right to birth control due to the right to privacy. In 1973, 50,000 male college students has sports scholarships, vs. 50 college women. The FBI had investigated women's lib for years, but shut down offices after Hoover died and there was no reason/evidence that the women's movements were trying to create an actual revolution.
Yeah, I got a lot out of it. Why did I say "only" 4.5 stars up top? Well, after that last paragraph, I'm wondering it a little myself. But it's hard to keep track of the names - there is a list of people and brief bios in back, but you're never introduced to them when you first encounter them, and you don't always want to flip to page 462 all the time. The book just kinda .... ends. No apparent reason - it didn't seem like the movement was even faltering - Bingham just stops in 1973. With both issues, I'm reminded of Eyes on the Prize, the oral history of the civil rights movement, which introduces people and gives some overall context so you feel the entire movement's arc. The ending in that book felt like an actual ending. This felt like Bingham hit a word count and stopped.
Still an excellent book. Definitely more 5/5 than 4/5.
August 15, 2024
Part history lesson, part intimate storytelling, Clara Bingham’s The Movement How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973 provides an oral history of one of the most transformative periods in women’s history in the United States. Stories from groundbreakers who defied social and legal limitations and fought for women’s liberation in the United States share what it was really like to live through the fight for gender equality.
As a female born in the United States in the 1960’s, I grew up hearing stories from my grandmother, aunts and mother about the ridiculous social and legal constraints placed on them simply for being women. Reading excerpts from Bingham’s interviews with female leaders like Pauli Murray, Sonia Pressman Fuentes, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Barbara Smith and others reminds me of those family stories. The oral histories in Bingham’s book go deeper and broader than my family’s stories. They detail the intersection of racism and sexism, and the ongoing subjugation faced by anyone who is not a white, cis, hetero male. The real beauty of Bingham’s book is the way she frames the history in oral telling. It feels like a history book, a fight song, and a tribute to the OGs of the feminist movement. It is for everyone who was there, and everyone who came after.
The book is organized into an Introduction, Part One (covering 1961-1968), Part Two (covering 1969-1970), Part Three (covering 1971-1973), Cast of Characters, Notes, Author Interview List, Bibliography, and Index.
Bingham narrates the introduction in her own words and provides a helpful overview of the history leading up to the women’s movement and why it remains a relevant, ongoing topic today. In each of the chronological sections, people who were part of the movement retell seminal events in the movement, layering personal experiences with historical facts, to explain the how and why of the movement. No singular event is the flashpoint. Rather, they all combine to become an explosive movement. The cast of characters consists of short biographical information of each feminine activist mentioned in the book; and the extensive author’s interview list covers years of interviews that went into creation of this book. The bibliography is even more extensive than the interview list and is a rabbit hole of U.S. women’s history.
I felt inspired and energized reading this book. My only wish is that it becomes a Netflix documentary so we can see and hear the oral history from people who lived through it.
Thank you #NetGalley and #Atria/OneSignalPublishers for an ARC
As a female born in the United States in the 1960’s, I grew up hearing stories from my grandmother, aunts and mother about the ridiculous social and legal constraints placed on them simply for being women. Reading excerpts from Bingham’s interviews with female leaders like Pauli Murray, Sonia Pressman Fuentes, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Barbara Smith and others reminds me of those family stories. The oral histories in Bingham’s book go deeper and broader than my family’s stories. They detail the intersection of racism and sexism, and the ongoing subjugation faced by anyone who is not a white, cis, hetero male. The real beauty of Bingham’s book is the way she frames the history in oral telling. It feels like a history book, a fight song, and a tribute to the OGs of the feminist movement. It is for everyone who was there, and everyone who came after.
The book is organized into an Introduction, Part One (covering 1961-1968), Part Two (covering 1969-1970), Part Three (covering 1971-1973), Cast of Characters, Notes, Author Interview List, Bibliography, and Index.
Bingham narrates the introduction in her own words and provides a helpful overview of the history leading up to the women’s movement and why it remains a relevant, ongoing topic today. In each of the chronological sections, people who were part of the movement retell seminal events in the movement, layering personal experiences with historical facts, to explain the how and why of the movement. No singular event is the flashpoint. Rather, they all combine to become an explosive movement. The cast of characters consists of short biographical information of each feminine activist mentioned in the book; and the extensive author’s interview list covers years of interviews that went into creation of this book. The bibliography is even more extensive than the interview list and is a rabbit hole of U.S. women’s history.
I felt inspired and energized reading this book. My only wish is that it becomes a Netflix documentary so we can see and hear the oral history from people who lived through it.
Thank you #NetGalley and #Atria/OneSignalPublishers for an ARC
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