The feminist movement is very much alive—at least according to its pioneers.
Robin Morgan, founder of the Women’s Media Center and author of the feminist classic “Sisterhood Is Powerful,” says the women’s movement is now “worldwide and passionate and sophisticated in its tactics.” Morgan was one of the organizers of the 1968 Miss America pageant protest—often seen as the real birth of the women’s movement.
Morgan is one of 160 groundbreaking women whose stories are told in the new PBS documentary Makers: Women Who Make America. The film uses intimate first-person accounts from ladies who have helped shape America through the women’s movement
In the film, some of today’s young successful women admitted they have a hard time identifying with the feminist movement.
“The feminist movement changed lives in a way that I think younger women can’t fully grasp,” Morgan said on Jansing & Co.
“What I often say to people who are quick to say I’m not a feminist is if you think you’re not a feminist, give it all back,” said Letty Cottin Pogrebin, founding editor of Ms. Magazine. “Once you start enumerating what has been accomplished over the last 50 years, you realize these women wouldn’t have had the choices that they have had. They wouldn’t have enjoyed the stature.”
Even with all that’s been accomplished in the last half century in support of the women’s rights, these feminist pioneers see more battles ahead including the battle for equal pay for women.
“Everything you see on Makers has to—I hope—rev up this generation to keep fighting,” said Pogrebin to Chris Jansing.
Makers: Women Who Make America airs Tuesday night at 8pm on PBS.
Essa Yip