Published in 2012
288 pages
Lynn Povich began her career at Newsweek as a secretary. In 1975 she became the first woman senior editor in the magazine’s history. Since leaving Newsweek in 1991, Povich has been editor-in-chief of Working Woman magazine and managing editor/senior executive producer for MSNBC.Com. Winner of the prestigious Matrix Award, Povich edited a book of columns by her father, famed Washington Post sports journalist Shirley Povich. She is married to Stephen Shepard, former editor-in-chief of Business Week and founding dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. They have two children.
What is this book about?
On March 16, 1970, Newsweek magazine hit newsstands with a cover story on the fledgling feminist movement entitled “Women in Revolt.” That same day, 46 Newsweek women, Lynn Povich among them, announced they’d filed an EEOC complaint charging their employer with “systematic discrimination” against them in hiring and promotion.
In The Good Girls Revolt, Povich evocatively tells the story of this dramatic turning point through the lives of several participants, showing how personal experiences and cultural shifts led a group of well-mannered, largely apolitical women, raised in the 1940s and 1950s, to stand up for their rights–and what happened after they did. For many, filing the suit was a radicalizing act that empowered them to “find themselves” and stake a claim. Others lost their way in a landscape of opportunities, pressures, discouragements, and hostilities they weren’t prepared to navigate.
With warmth, humor, and perspective, the book also explores why changes in the law did not change everything for today’s young women.
