This far-ranging collection of public and private sources illuminates a revolutionary half century for American women. The last six decades have been a pivotal period of change and resistance, progress and backlash for American women. From the Hoover vacuum cleaner to the fax machine, the pill to reproductive rights, from Rosie the Riveter to Martha Stewart and Hillary Rodham Clinton American women have grappled with a sometimes dizzying rate of social and economic change and continually shifting conceptions of gender.
This collection of documents seeks to chronicle the exciting and tumultuous recent history of American women, beginning with World War II, and the lasting reverberations of the greater employment opportunities for women created by the war effort. 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.