When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

by Gail Collins

Book Overview

Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" (People).

When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316059544
• ISBN13: 9780316059541
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Must read if born after 1945

In 2025, there is no Planet B for our human species...so ending the global oppression of women makes a lot of sense.

Great Herstory!

Finally, someone has written an accessible, readable book about a critical period in American history. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "When Everything Changed." This is a wonderful, creative, and informative book about a revolution that seems to have gone unnoticed. For those of us who lived through these tumultuous times, the book is a refresher, a reminder of the struggle that was both personal and historical in nature. For those of you under thirty-five, it is a must read. You must know where you have been, to know where you are, so that you can know where you are going. You must understand your Herstory. (My only negative is minor. I understand that Ms. Collins did not set out to write the "definitive" history of the time period. But, I was distracted from some of the main points by too much reliance on the individual stories. On occasions, I felt overwhelmed by too much anecdotal information, too many quotations, and too many stories of individuals; albeit, fascinating in there own right. More analysis and less reliance on individual stories would have made this a truly great book.) On the whole, however, I highly recommend this book to all. I only wish this book was published when I was teaching my Herstory Unit! Oh, the stories you would be able to tell your students....It should be in every library from middle school and up. It should be on the reading list of every history teacher. Everyone will enjoy this excellent history.

a book for all, but especially for young women

Gail Collins has written a revealing book both for those women of a "certain age" who lived through the events she chronicles and for those who are too young to know how difficult a journey it has been. The names everyone knows are here but the real beauty of this book lies in the stories of those unheralded and brave women who, at great personal cost, stood their ground and made a difference. Collins's witty, concise, reportorial style makes for a delightful read, once past the somewhat leaden introduction. I learned many surprising things about where we were in the decades of my early adulthood and about how we came to be where we are now, as well as how far we have to go if we do not backslide. Collins skillfully puts the progress of women into the larger picture of social history. This book is my holiday gift of choice for all the women in my family, especially daughters and daughters-in-law. They are the ones who will continue the amazing journey, provided they heed the warnings Collins implies.

We've Come A Long Way, Baby - But We Still Have A Long Way to Go

From June Cleaver to Hillary Clinton, Gail Collins` new book, When Everything Changed, reminds us of both how much everything has changed for American women in the last 50 years and just how little. Collins writes skillfully about the "olden" days when a glamour career for a woman was to be a stewardess and when the reason most women went to college to get a "Mrs.". As accessible as she is on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, and as wryly funny, Collins illustrates the historical facts with the stories of real women including those whose names we all know (Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama) as well as those we would probably not know unless we read her book. What Collins does particularly well though is to highlight that there still isn't gender parity in America's workplaces or homes. She ends on a note that celebrates how far we've come with a reality check - the gender pay gap still exists, too few women serve as CEOs or sit on corporate boards and the work-life balance conundrum has yet to be resolved. When Everything Changed is an inspiring book. If we have forgotten the sacrifices and struggles of women who blazed the trail and take the fact that they changed the world, we should be reminded. And even if we haven't, Collins shows us that we have miles to go before we sleep.

Here's how America's I.Q. was doubled

Revolutions with the greatest lasting impact are sometimes the quietest events of their time, a description that applies to the dazzling struggle for equality that American women waged from 1960 to the present. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor tells of graduating from Stanford Law School and being unable to get a job in any Phoenix law firm except as a file clerk. She grew up on an Arizona ranch where her Dad expected her to handle almost every job done by men; yet, even with a Stanford law degree, she was virtually shut out of the legal profession in Arizona. Her court nomination was heralded as a major breakthrough. Why? Why is recognition of anyone's intelligence a "breakthrough"? Collins is a gifted writer who explains why equality is so radical, yet so just and inevitable. O'Connor's career, and that of millions of other women during the past 50 years, is a genuine "revolution" in social attitudes. It changed America and the world without a shot being fired and only a few bras burnt. Accepting women as equals in all endeavours doubles the intelligence of any society. Fifty years ago, women had the choice of career or housework. Today, women have the right to hold almost any job (except submarine crews) they want. It's a long complex and continuing effort. After the Equal Rights Amendment was abandoned, women by the millions set out to win their rights one issue and one job at a time. Collins tells a masterful story based on personal efforts. The "revolution" was privatized; nothing could stop it. This isn't a book of dull theory, bewildered opposition, political theory or arcane legal savvy; it is the stories of hundreds of people who made Equal Rights a fact of American life and an example for the world. Often, great events are the product of great leaders motivated by great ideals. Instead, the campaign for women's rights involved dozens of leaders plus millions of individuals. This mass movement made it an inevitable event, despite the rage of Schlafly, Bryant and other conservatives who can't respect the right of people to make their own decisions. The difference is subtle, yet profound. Personally, I grew up in a society whose formal head is the Queen of England. It took until the 1980s, and Canadians hailed it as a major breakthrough in equality, for a woman to be named Governor General of Canada (the Queen's representative). Really. Is it a cultural breakthrough when a woman is appointed to represent a woman? Or is it a century overdue? For Canadians, a woman representing a woman is major progress. Yet, this incident typifies similar idiocies in the U.S. It is so logical as to defy explanation. However, changing attitudes is a genuine revolution. What is so strange about allowing anyone to use their full intelligence? Yet, as Collins deftly illustrates, it takes a lot of quiet cleverness to penetrate the fog of the status quo. Collins cites example after example, showi