Ms. and the Material Girls: Perceptions of Women from the 1970s Through the 1990s

by Catherine Gourley

Looks at the roles of American women in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s in the feminist movement, in the workplace, the family, and sports, and in the stereotypes in the magazines, television shows, and films of the time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism

144 pages, Library Binding

First published August 15, 2007

About the author

As a nonfiction author speciailizing in social history, Cathy spends a great deal of time researching the past. Her research has taken her into the belly of a whaleship on an icy January morning in Mystic, Connecticut, deep into a coal mine in Northeastern Pennsylvania, to tenement buildings on New York City's Lower East Side, and even into the Secret Annexe in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. But she also researches the archives of old newspapers and digs for insights to people's past lives by reading their diaries and letters.

Cathy is also the national director of Letters About Literature, a reading promotino program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Additionally, she is the principal curriculum writer for The Story of Movies, a visual literacy initiative of The Film Foundation, Los Angeles and New York City.

Prior to returning home to Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1997 to write full-time, Gourley was the editor of special projects for Weekly Reader Corporation. In this position also she edited Read, a literature magazine for middle school students. In addition, Gourley spearheaded the relaunching of the Barnard College Young Adult Biography Series in 1996-97, working both with Barnard College and the series publisher, Conari Press, Berkeley, CA.

Gourley's first published book was a historical novel, The Courtship of Joanna, that explored the experiences of Irish immigrants who worked in the anthracite coal mines of Northeastern Pennsylvania in the 1880s. This adult book was nominated for the Carl Sandburg Award through the Chicago Public Library and was a finalist for the Jefferson Cup fof excellence in historical fiction.

Radio was the media venue for her first work of fiction, a short story title “Breaker Boy” which she adapted for broadcast on national public radio in 1986 through an award from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Cathy's hometown is Wilkes-Barre, PA. But she has lived and worked in a number of states: Ridgway, PA, where she first began publishing her short feature stories, Corpus Christi, Texas, where her freelance writing career got started; Chicago, Illinois, where she published her first book, a historical novel titled The Courtship of Joanna; Essex, Connecticut, where she worked as an editor for Weekly Reader's Read magazine. She returned to Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1997 to write full-time.

Reviews

[Erin Reilly-Sanders]

While this appeared to be one of those uninteresting, generic series books, I really enjoyed this. A brief, concise review of recent womens history feels like it should be required reading for all young women, if it can be presented in a non-dry, intriguing way like this title. In this case, social and political events are linked with advertising and photos from the appropriate time to create a complete picture of attitudes toward women and how they've changed through recent history. While not a big deal, I also wanted to note that the teal and white colour scheme is a bit obnoxious and black text on the teal somewhat difficult to read.

[Chy]

This should be taught in history classes or at the very least required reading for BOTH males and females. Though I wouldn't call it a thorough history of the 70s through the 90s it touched on a lot of the big events that women went through from the first woman voted into the house to the people who fought against the ERA, to sports, to models and the fashion industry, to science and law. It covered a wide range of topics and gave you a glimpse of just how long and hard women have been fighting to have equal rights. Though I didn't read the first books in the volume after reading this I am definitely going to check out the earlier volumes. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

[Julie]

Interesting take on feminism in the 70's, 80's & 90's. I liked this because it was during my formative years and I can definitely see how the times shaped my perspective on my future. I started my teen years focusing on materialism and how I could "do and have it all" before realizing that the "all" wasn't really what I wanted. Since then I have had to justify to many why I am very happy with what I have and don't need more.