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The World Split Open
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Published January 1, 1974
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August 5, 2025
A MARVELOUS HISTORICAL AND JOURNALISTIC ACCOUNT OF THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Ruth Rosen is an author and journalist, who is Professor Emerita of history at the University of California at Davis.
She wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, “This is not a book just about an isolated section of society… Many readers… probably know that American feminism was shaped by the political culture of the fifties and sixties. But it also developed out of much longer and deeper political traditions---such as the disestablishment of religion as a state force and a profound distrust of centralized government… individual enterprise and initiatives; a class politics expressed mostly through race and gender… and a deep and abiding belief that in America one can always reinvent oneself.” (Pg. xiv)
She continues, “I did not write this book only for my generation, those of us raised to live as traditional women, whose lives were dramatically disrupted and transformed by the power of feminist insights… This book is also written for those women and men who did not participate in the women’s movement, who were too busy trying to survive, who felt excluded or estranged, were not yet born, are still not born.” (Pg. xv-xvi)
She notes that “[Simone] De Beauvoir [in ‘The Second Sex’] was not the first person to write of women’s subordination. But she was the first to address women’s modern dilemma---the fact that they possessed basic political rights yet suffered from extreme cultural, social, and economic marginality. Nor was her work without flaws… Her emphasis on individual choice ignored a movement’s need for solidarity and her wistful prediction that socialism would end female oppression underestimated the powerful constraints of class and race, as well as those of religion and global politics.” (Pg. 57)
In the late 1960s, “The rights of lesbians… proved to be [a] divisive issue… In 1969 and again in 1970 Betty Friedan had labeled lesbianism a ‘lavender menace’ that threatened to taint the women’s movement. Angry at being ‘purged’ by her assaults, many lesbians left the organization [NOW]. In 1971, after years of hiding in the organizational closet, lesbians demanded that NOW pass a resolution recognizing their civil rights… In 1973, NOW… repositioned the granting of rights to lesbianism and sexual preference as but another extension of civil rights.” (Pg. 83)
She reports that “In March 1968, an article by Martha Lear… in the New York Times Magazine… [titled] ‘The Second Feminist Wave’ christened the movement with a name that connected it to ‘first wave’ feminism in the suffrage movement.” (Pg. 85)
She recounts that Mary King recalled a meeting of SNCC, in which Stokely Carmichael said, “’What is the position of women in SNCC?’ Answering himself, he responded, ‘The position of women in SNCC is PRONE!’ Stokely threw back his head and roared outrageously with laughter. We all collapsed with hilarity…. It drew us all close together, because, even in that moment, he was poking fun at his own attitudes.” “His joke offended neither King nor [Casey] Hayden, who, at the time, regarded Stokely Carmichael as one of the men most sympathetic to their position paper.” (Pg. 108-109)
She reports on the September 7, 1968 protest at the Miss American pageant: “Into a large ‘Freedom Trash Can,’ [female protesters] threw ‘instruments of torture’---girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, cosmetics … and yes, bras… the plan was to light a fire in the can… Asked by a reporter why the city objected to the protest, Robin Morgan replied that the mayor had been concerned about fire safety… she added, ‘We told him we wouldn’t do anything dangerous---just a symbolic bra-burning.’ … by September 28, the [New York] Times referred to ‘bra burnings’ as though they had actually happened. By then, the media … had ignited … the most tenacious media myth about the women’s movement---that women ‘libbers’ burned their bras as a way of protesting their status in American society.” (Pg. 160)
In the 1980s, “The ‘anti-anti-pornography movement drew a variety of activists… [Some] attacked the antiporn movement for equating sex with abuse and humiliation… At times, the pornography wars seemed to deepen the gulf between straight women and lesbians… As Susan Brownmiller remembered it, ‘[One lesbian] took the microphone and said, “We do all the work in this movement and you go home and s_ck c__k.’ And I said, ‘If you hate men so much, why are you dressed in men’s clothes?’” (Pg. 193)
She recounts, “‘My feminist generation ate our leaders,’ wrote Phyllis Chesler. ‘Beheading of leaders was the name of the game in those days,’ recalled Ann Snitow. Trashing had ‘happened in the black movement and it had happened in the peace movement,’ recalled Susan Brownmiller, ‘but they didn’t destroy their leaders quite the way we did.’” (Pg. 232)
After the Redstockings accused Gloria Steinem of working with the CIA, “[Betty] Friedan compounded Steinem’s difficulties … by implying that a ‘paralysis of leadership’ in the women’s movement ‘could be due to the CIA.’ … Steinem didn’t respond, fearing that people would only remember the charges and not her answers.” (Pg. 236)
She continues, “Later, Friedan would conclude that the FBI has likely infiltrated… various NOW national conventions… [This] is just one example of how some feminists attributed the divisions within the movement---or the backlash against the movement---to intelligence activities.” (Pg. 253) Later, she observes, “This was hardly the first time in history that social activists became increasingly dogmatic as a movement grew larger and more diverse.” (Pg. 259)
She notes that “In 1993, Rebecca Walker founded The Third Wave, a multi-issue activist group whose average age was 25… To distinguish themselves from Second Wave feminists… it was the instability of identity, as well as the search for contradictions, that created her generation’s distinctive perspective.” (Pg. 276)
She points out, “black women… took an active part in shaping feminism in national organizations… With the collapse of the black nationalist movement, African-American women felt freer to take a second look at the sexism within their own community…. African-American women soon became engaged in what was now called ‘the black family quarrel.’” (Pg. 282-283)
She laments, “President Carter sent legislative recommendations to Congress and issued an executive order to establish a standing National Advisory Committee for women. But the recommendations were never implemented. By then, the New Right had created cultural and political gridlock. With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, memories of Houston would quickly [begin] to seem like a dream from a distant past.” (Pg. 294)
She reports, “What really shocked and demoralized many veteran feminists was Betty Friedan’s critique of the women’s movement in her book ‘The Second Stage.’ … Friedan tried to promote a new agenda that would… isolate radicals and bring the women’s movement into the mainstream of American life… some feminists viewed Friedan’s new emphasis on family life as ‘a reactionary retreat.’” (Pg. 335)
This book (which is exceptional in its providing DETAILS and EXACT QUOTES of famous statements) will be of great interest to anyone studying the women’s movement.
Ruth Rosen is an author and journalist, who is Professor Emerita of history at the University of California at Davis.
She wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, “This is not a book just about an isolated section of society… Many readers… probably know that American feminism was shaped by the political culture of the fifties and sixties. But it also developed out of much longer and deeper political traditions---such as the disestablishment of religion as a state force and a profound distrust of centralized government… individual enterprise and initiatives; a class politics expressed mostly through race and gender… and a deep and abiding belief that in America one can always reinvent oneself.” (Pg. xiv)
She continues, “I did not write this book only for my generation, those of us raised to live as traditional women, whose lives were dramatically disrupted and transformed by the power of feminist insights… This book is also written for those women and men who did not participate in the women’s movement, who were too busy trying to survive, who felt excluded or estranged, were not yet born, are still not born.” (Pg. xv-xvi)
She notes that “[Simone] De Beauvoir [in ‘The Second Sex’] was not the first person to write of women’s subordination. But she was the first to address women’s modern dilemma---the fact that they possessed basic political rights yet suffered from extreme cultural, social, and economic marginality. Nor was her work without flaws… Her emphasis on individual choice ignored a movement’s need for solidarity and her wistful prediction that socialism would end female oppression underestimated the powerful constraints of class and race, as well as those of religion and global politics.” (Pg. 57)
In the late 1960s, “The rights of lesbians… proved to be [a] divisive issue… In 1969 and again in 1970 Betty Friedan had labeled lesbianism a ‘lavender menace’ that threatened to taint the women’s movement. Angry at being ‘purged’ by her assaults, many lesbians left the organization [NOW]. In 1971, after years of hiding in the organizational closet, lesbians demanded that NOW pass a resolution recognizing their civil rights… In 1973, NOW… repositioned the granting of rights to lesbianism and sexual preference as but another extension of civil rights.” (Pg. 83)
She reports that “In March 1968, an article by Martha Lear… in the New York Times Magazine… [titled] ‘The Second Feminist Wave’ christened the movement with a name that connected it to ‘first wave’ feminism in the suffrage movement.” (Pg. 85)
She recounts that Mary King recalled a meeting of SNCC, in which Stokely Carmichael said, “’What is the position of women in SNCC?’ Answering himself, he responded, ‘The position of women in SNCC is PRONE!’ Stokely threw back his head and roared outrageously with laughter. We all collapsed with hilarity…. It drew us all close together, because, even in that moment, he was poking fun at his own attitudes.” “His joke offended neither King nor [Casey] Hayden, who, at the time, regarded Stokely Carmichael as one of the men most sympathetic to their position paper.” (Pg. 108-109)
She reports on the September 7, 1968 protest at the Miss American pageant: “Into a large ‘Freedom Trash Can,’ [female protesters] threw ‘instruments of torture’---girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, cosmetics … and yes, bras… the plan was to light a fire in the can… Asked by a reporter why the city objected to the protest, Robin Morgan replied that the mayor had been concerned about fire safety… she added, ‘We told him we wouldn’t do anything dangerous---just a symbolic bra-burning.’ … by September 28, the [New York] Times referred to ‘bra burnings’ as though they had actually happened. By then, the media … had ignited … the most tenacious media myth about the women’s movement---that women ‘libbers’ burned their bras as a way of protesting their status in American society.” (Pg. 160)
In the 1980s, “The ‘anti-anti-pornography movement drew a variety of activists… [Some] attacked the antiporn movement for equating sex with abuse and humiliation… At times, the pornography wars seemed to deepen the gulf between straight women and lesbians… As Susan Brownmiller remembered it, ‘[One lesbian] took the microphone and said, “We do all the work in this movement and you go home and s_ck c__k.’ And I said, ‘If you hate men so much, why are you dressed in men’s clothes?’” (Pg. 193)
She recounts, “‘My feminist generation ate our leaders,’ wrote Phyllis Chesler. ‘Beheading of leaders was the name of the game in those days,’ recalled Ann Snitow. Trashing had ‘happened in the black movement and it had happened in the peace movement,’ recalled Susan Brownmiller, ‘but they didn’t destroy their leaders quite the way we did.’” (Pg. 232)
After the Redstockings accused Gloria Steinem of working with the CIA, “[Betty] Friedan compounded Steinem’s difficulties … by implying that a ‘paralysis of leadership’ in the women’s movement ‘could be due to the CIA.’ … Steinem didn’t respond, fearing that people would only remember the charges and not her answers.” (Pg. 236)
She continues, “Later, Friedan would conclude that the FBI has likely infiltrated… various NOW national conventions… [This] is just one example of how some feminists attributed the divisions within the movement---or the backlash against the movement---to intelligence activities.” (Pg. 253) Later, she observes, “This was hardly the first time in history that social activists became increasingly dogmatic as a movement grew larger and more diverse.” (Pg. 259)
She notes that “In 1993, Rebecca Walker founded The Third Wave, a multi-issue activist group whose average age was 25… To distinguish themselves from Second Wave feminists… it was the instability of identity, as well as the search for contradictions, that created her generation’s distinctive perspective.” (Pg. 276)
She points out, “black women… took an active part in shaping feminism in national organizations… With the collapse of the black nationalist movement, African-American women felt freer to take a second look at the sexism within their own community…. African-American women soon became engaged in what was now called ‘the black family quarrel.’” (Pg. 282-283)
She laments, “President Carter sent legislative recommendations to Congress and issued an executive order to establish a standing National Advisory Committee for women. But the recommendations were never implemented. By then, the New Right had created cultural and political gridlock. With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, memories of Houston would quickly [begin] to seem like a dream from a distant past.” (Pg. 294)
She reports, “What really shocked and demoralized many veteran feminists was Betty Friedan’s critique of the women’s movement in her book ‘The Second Stage.’ … Friedan tried to promote a new agenda that would… isolate radicals and bring the women’s movement into the mainstream of American life… some feminists viewed Friedan’s new emphasis on family life as ‘a reactionary retreat.’” (Pg. 335)
This book (which is exceptional in its providing DETAILS and EXACT QUOTES of famous statements) will be of great interest to anyone studying the women’s movement.
Displaying 1 of 1 review