Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941 Book

This extensive collection of public and private sources illuminates a pivotal period of change, resistance, progress, and backlash for American women. From the Hoover vacuum cleaner to the fax machine, from the pill to reproductive rights, and from Rosie the Riveter to Martha Stewart and Hillary Rodham Clinton, American women have grappled with a dizzying array of social and economic developments and shifting conceptions of gender. Respected scholar Harriet Sigerman chronicles an exciting and tumultuous history, beginning with World War II and its profound impact on women's short- and long-term employment prospects. Subsequent documents speak to a series of timely topics: the ideas and changes brought about by the women's movement, the challenges to and defense of reproductive rights, the backlash against feminism in the name of family values, and new visions for women's lives in the twenty-first century. The volume's diverse voices include Lillian Smith, Rosa Parks, Dagmar Wilson, Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan, Carol Gilligan, Fannie Lou Hamer, Naomi Wolf, Anita Hill, Erica Jong, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, among many others.