PBS special on the women's movement

Sometimes I wish we had TV, because I would love to see this tonight.

Democracy Now interviews producer Betsy West, who talks about how "dismissive" the media were of the women's movement in the beginning.  It is hard to grasp these days what it was like then. Most of us tried to ignore the blatant discrimination, because the alternative would have been to be furious all the time.  DN shows great footage from the documentary of Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. In those days, discrimination was just this crass, lest we forget.  We just got told we could not do things because we were women, so put up or shut up. Discrimination still prevails, but it is mostly covert and subtle:  the dismissive remarks (still a favored way of dealing with women), the lower salaries, being assigned traditional roles and shunted aside in various ways. 

Isn't this a great picture, of a parade with Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan in the lead! It was inspiring.

 

 

Comments

[naomi dagen bloom]

Being "furious all the time" as a good thing. Too bad you did not have the opportunity. If one is old and female there continues to be plenty of discrimination going around.

Yes, the images were wonderful primarily in the first two segments. The energy of the time was exhilarating though often exhausting. Toward the end, the content of the program got weird--especially with women's movement being blamed for the unfinished work. sigh.

[Hattie]

Naomi: It will be a while before I see it. Someone taped it, luckily.

[Hattie]

I lived in Germany for two years, and German women were militant then, in the early 70's. Moving to Switzerland was a step backwards. Swiss women were very timid. One thing the women's movement did for me, though, was to allow me to ignore a lot of what was prescribed for women in Switzerland. I read all the literature, of course, so I was there, at least in my mind and had quite a bit of freedom, actually, at least compared to Swiss women. Remember, this is a country that did not give women the vote until 1971, and one canton held out even longer on local elections, right into the 90's.
When I returned to the U.S. I caught up in education and so on.I would have wished for a better career, that's all.

[Henry Hank Chapin]

My daughter brought home a Swiss guy once. She was pretty much in the forefront of women's rights. She was surprised to hear that women could not vote in Switzerland at that time.

In my view, "being angry all the time" would not only be hard, if not impossible, to sustain but bad for the person.

[Hattie]

Henry: Especially if that person is a woman, since anger in women is so proscribed.

[Annie]

Looking forward to watching with you!

[ui]

I did watch the show and was interesting to think about what was going on in my own life during all the years addressed. I was so busy living my life and pressing ahead as I had been to the best of my ability -- not following expected female norms most of my life, I guess.
In the '40's as a young child I annoyed adult female, probably male, too, relatives by wanting to wear blue jeans long before they were considered fashion attire.

Many more tales I could relate, but won't, so didn't have to actively take part in protestations and group activities to forward the movement long before Boomers came along with many inclined to take credit for all the progress. Lots of women set the stage for them. I remember defending the movement as not an "either/or" much less anti-male point of view for most women -- but understood the need for publicity and the tactics required to gain attention since by the mid-fifties I was working in television. Interesting memories.