The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America

A good history of the modern women's movement, at least up until the first decade of this century. All the excitement of the past few years occurred after the most recent revision. The book does have some weaknesses, however. Throughout the book, the author talks about the way that faith and religion drove the women of the women's movement, but almost never mentions any of the many ways in which religion was a force in the fight against women's liberation. It is mentioned briefly in passing that the Catholic Church was opposed to abortion, but there is no mention of the opposition of the evangelical churches, and no mention of the violent fury the church launched against many initiatives designed to improve women's lives, including not show more only abortion but ERA. The organized campaign against ERA by the churches is never mentioned once; she simply mentions that ERA failed to pass as though it was somehow just a minor event rather than a big coordinated effort by well funded groups that prevented the passage. There are also several places where the objectivity appears to slip, such as when she seems to accept the belief among some groups that you could not be a heterosexual feminist, that feminism requires lesbianism. Perhaps the most annoying, though, is something this book shares in common with too many feminist books - the idea that it was a positive when the woman's movement persuaded a lot of women to abandon scientific clinical medicine for alternative medicine. The author lists the embrace of alternative medicine as a good thing, because for some reason the fact that at one time most doctors were men means that scientific medicine must be wrong and anti-woman. Nowhere is acknowledged the way that medicine has shifted in the past few decades as a result of the women's movement to become more attuned to the needs of women and the ways that women can be part of their own medical process now. Overall a positive book for the historical insights and the solid research, but it can be difficult to overlook those things, especially the lack of honesty where the role of religion is concerned. The alternative medicine is a small part; the other pervades the book. show less

Chronicles the Women's Movement from post World War II forward. Contains excellent material on society and women's place in it during the Korean War era. Also contains valuable information on the nascent Women's Movement during the 1960's and connects this to the burgeoning of the Movement during the 1970s. Excellent bibliography. Valuable perspective helps us to understand what was happening to military women during the 1950s 1960s and 1970s, when the military finally began reacting to the changes in women's status in society.