J.A.H. Book Review
My book review of Freedom for Women: Forging the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1953–1970 has been published in this month’s Journal of American History.
Here is part of the review: “Giardina’s role as an organizer in the movement makes her story unique. (In addition, a transcript of Giardina’s oral history is available at the Smathers Library at the University of Florida.) This book includes her views after decades of retrospection. She wrote that the purpose of her study was to highlight the role “the non-feminist social movement played – movements in which women held a contradictory position of more equal partnership and freedom for contribution.” She met her goal.
The book does have its weaknesses, though. Giardina noted movement leaders would only speak to female reporters, and thus these journalists became enlightened about gender inequity. This is an overstatement. Many female journalists – mostly from the women’s pages – were well aware of the principles of feminism. What Giardina does not note is that some feminist leaders also refused to speak to some of these women’s page journalists, preferring to speak to only those few women in the news sections.
Furthermore, Giardina’s reference to writer Helen Dudar and her Newsweek cover story about the movement in which Dudar was “converted by her assignment” was a simplistic explanation for women journalists of the time. What Giardina leaves out is significant. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, female reporters across the country sought a bigger role at their publications only to be rejected. This included Newsweek, where women were restricted to researchers and filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit. In other words, choosing the freelancer Dudar as an example of progress or enlightenment was an insult to the qualified women already on the staff.
While much of the women’s liberation movement scholarship has involved the East Coast, it is interesting to finally hear the story of Florida feminism. What could use further exploration is the role of women’s page journalists and clubwomen of Florida who were laying the groundwork for questions of equality for women. For example, the Fort Lauderdale News’ women’s page editor Edee Greene used her columns and her clout to establish a domestic violence center and threatened to launch a protest against a restaurant’s male-only lunch policy in the 1970s. She did not need anyone to raise her awareness about inequities for women.”
