audiobook Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End by Sara Evans in History

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Not too badBy The Sassy CountessThere is some information that I did not know. However; this is not my preferred timeline; and it wasn't great so it did not grab my attention.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A HISTORIAN ANALYZES THE RESULTS OF THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENTBy Steven H ProppSara M. Evans (born 1943) is a Regents Professor Emeritus in the history department at the University of Minnesota. She has also worked as the editor of Feminist Studies and a consulting editor of the Journal of American History. She has written/co-written other books such as Born for Liberty: A History of American Women; Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement the New Left; Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America; Journeys that Opened up the World: Women; Student Christian Movements; and Social Justice; 1955-1975; Wage Justice: Comparable Worth and the Paradox of Technocratic Reform; etc.She wrote in the first chapter of this 2003 book; “For the purposes of this book… my focus is on the [women’s] movement itself in all its diversity of ideas; constituencies; strategies; and organizations… Perhaps its most distinctive characteristic has been the challenge to the boundary between the ‘personal’ and the ‘political’ captured in an early slogan; ‘The Personal Is Political.’ Under this banner; the movement politicized issues that had long been deemed outside the purview of ‘politics;’ including sexuality; domestic violence; and the exercise of authority within the family. It also confronted the ancient association of men and maleness with public life… and women and femaleness domesticity (personal life and subordination). The result was a far more radical challenge…than efforts simply to gain admission for women into the public world of civic and economic rights. It raised questions about the nature of politics and about our very understanding of maleness and femaleness with all it implies for personal relationships; sexuality; and the family; and in so doing; it questioned one of the most fundamental and intimate forms of the hierarchy; one that has been used … to explain; justify; and naturalize other forms of subordination. The result of this feminist challenge has been a political; legal; and cultural maelstrom that continues to this day.” (Pg. 3)She continues; “I argue here that the brilliant creativity and the longevity of feminism in the late twentieth century is grounded in the breathtaking claim that the personal is the political. At the same time; this confluence of personal-private and public-political contained the seed of the movement’s repeated episodes of fragmentation and self-destruction…. One of the motives behind the writing of this book is my own awareness that the loss of historical memory would have far-reaching consequences. It would force future generations to invent feminism as if they had no shoulders on which to stand; repeating the unfortunate experience of many in the 1960s… Certainly I am not the only historian who wishes to spare the next generation the rage we experienced about having been cut off from our own history in all its complexity.” (Pg. 4-5)She notes; “[starting in the 1960s] professional women began to organize themselves. In academia; professors… organized caucuses to pressure their associations to set up formal committees on the status of women… Between 1969 and 1972; such groups sparked 30 studies on women in academic disciplines; documenting the extent of discrimination in detail. Academic women’s caucuses did not simply pressure for professional advancement: some went so far as to challenge the intellectual premises of their professions… at the American Historical Association (AHA) … Male historians reacted with incredulity; claiming the mantle of scholarly objectivity and accusing the women of political bias. It was a turbulent; angry meeting at the usually decorous AHA.” (Pg. 83)She admits; “When Robin Morgan set out to promote Sisterhood is Powerful in 1970; she was astonished to discover that the exhausting debates that had consumed her in New York were fundamentally irrelevant to most of the groups springing up across the country. Indeed; in most cities the decentralized nature of women’s liberation groups meant that schism was avoided for several years. By the early seventies; though; women’s liberation organizations across the country were wracked with tension over seemingly irreconcilable perspectives. After only 6 or 7 years; the women’s liberation movement had splintered.” (Pg. 108)She observes; “The breadth of the women’s movement and the mainstreaming of what had been extremely marginal issues only a decade before became visible in 1977 at the massive International Women’s Year Conference in Houston; Texas and the 50 state conferences that preceded it… The Houston conference; consisting of about 2;000 delegates and 18;000 additional observers; made clear that the women’s movement had spread well beyond its original white; middle-class base: 35 percent of the delegates were nonwhite and nearly one in five was low-income.” (Pg. 139-140)She recounts; “Cultural feminism received an ideological boost with the emergence of lesbian feminism… The Furies were only one of dozens; perhaps hundreds; of lesbian communes; many of which persisted through the seventies and into the eighties. In such environments; talk of women’s culture seemed natural; linked to a separatist vision of economic as well as cultural independence. When the Furies broke up in 1972; its members took the quest for female self-sufficiency in new directions. Having given up the view that they could withdraw into an entirely female world; they nonetheless set out to establish women’s businesses and outlets for women’s artistic expressions. One such company was Olivia records; founded in 1973 by five women. Former Furies member Ginner Berson described their decision-making process: ‘We asked ourselves; what are we going to do next in the women’s movement?... the way for women to get power was through economics; by controlling our own economic situation… we wanted to be in a position to be able to affect large numbers of women; and that had to be through media… So we put the two together and got a women’s recording company.’ … Other former Furies were involved in founding Women in Distribution; Diana Press; Moonforce Media; ‘Quest: A Feminist Quarterly;’ and Sagaris Institute.” (Pg. 147-148)In the 1990s; “[Christina Hoff] Sommers; [Camille] Paglia; and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese tore into the women’s movement for its individualism (Fox-Genovese); puritanism (Paglia); and rage (Sommers) with books like Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women. For all their differences; they shared a sharp edge of personal grievance toward what they viewed as a feminist establishment. Each had been embroiled in battles with other feminist scholars… It is ironic that they describe an all-powerful cultlike Mafia of feminist scholars when the experience of many students in the 1980s was that their faculty were too worried about being successful in academia to be activists… The accusation that feminists were obsessed with women as victims had a kernel of truth. Some were. Rhetorical excesses showed up… in the parts of the movement still seeking absolutes.” (Pg. 221)She comments about Third Wave feminism; “When the ‘Third Wave’ women appeared in the mid-1990s they set out to claim a place within feminism distinct from that of their literal and figurative mothers… Third Wavers not only differentiate themselves from their feminist elders; they also participate in a public debate with others of their own generation about what feminism might mean and how it needs to change… When Third Wavers meet resistance; unfortunately; is from some Second Wavers unwilling to hear that the world is different… Feminists who have been active for more than three decades… are understandably tired. Younger women are often ignorant about and cavalierly dismissive of the struggles of previous generations. By the same token; older generations have trouble listening to and supporting younger women’s efforts to claim the movement as their own and assert leadership for struggles that will be no less difficult than those in the past. The early years of women’s liberation were marked by a full measure of youthful hubris and intolerance toward elders on the Left…” (Pg. 230-232)She concludes; “Feminism in the twenty-first century inherits all the complexities and contradictions stirred up in the late twentieth century. Personal politics was the wellspring of feminism’s power to reshape the landscape legally; institutionally; and personally because it named the realities of power and inequality in the most deeply personal and private aspects of women’s lives. As personal politics entered increasingly differentiated public spaces; however; the women’s liberation movement found it difficult to be EFFECTIVELY radical; to rethink traditional constructions of public and private AS A POLITICS.” (Pg. 232) She ends with the statement; “women have been central to the initiation of a global civic infrastructure that holds the potential for public problem solving in a world fraught with environmental destruction; murderous violence; and extreme disparities between the wealthy and the poor. American women will continue to play a critical role in that struggle; knowing that massive change is possible but there is no end in sight.” (Pg. 238)There have been a number of histories of the modern women’s movement [e.g.; Moving the Mountain: The Women's Movement in America since 1960; When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present; The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America; American Feminism: a Contemporary History]; and this one will be an excellent supplement other histories.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. professional service.By Angelosend it to my boyfriend ; Quality product; thick enough not to bend with a solid; comfortable grip. Couldn't ask for a better product for the price. so fast; receive it next day . love it . so good .