I gave this presentation to the staff of NS1 in honor of Women’s History Month. Almost all the staff were tuning in remotely via Zoom. Unfortunately, the beginning wasn’t taped. I started with an old saw: “If March is women’s history month, then what’s the rest of the year? I then went on to state my theme — we’ve made some progress, but we still have a ways to go. I then began by portraying a world without feminism, that is, the world I grew up in, in the 1950s and ‘60s. I organized my description into three categories: 1. money and jobs, 2. authority, and 3. sex and gender. I began by recalled that jobs were then advertised “Help Wanted: Male” and “Help Wanted: Female.” Only 44% of women were employed and made 52 cents to the male dollar. That’s where the recording begins.

The other thing I want to add here comes near the end, when I was asked about good new books on the subject. I completely blanked on Lucy Delap’s wonderful Feminisms: A Global History, the subject of my previous blog. It’s terrific and available from the University of Chicago Press.

If you are having trouble seeing the video, go directly to the YouTube page