The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich

What is it about?

In March 1970, more than 40 women working for Newsweek sued the magazine for sexual discrimination - the first female class action lawsuit that inspired many more to follow in their footsteps and fight for equal opportunity in the workplace.

OK, but what is it really about?

On the same day that Newsweek published a cover story titled “Women in Revolt”, dozens of the magazine’s employees filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, stating they had been “systematically discriminated against in both hiring and promotion and forced to assume a subsidiary role”, simply based on the fact that they were women. Their class action lawsuit was a groundbreaking moment in the women’s movement and marked the beginning of breaking the glass ceiling for female journalists.

Is it any good?

During the extensive “stay at home”-period in this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Netflix and Amazon Prime became two of my most loyal companions. Always on the lookout for new films and series to watch, I stumbled across “Good Girls Revolt”. The trailer seemed promising to me: set in the late 1960s and early 70s, highlighting female researchers of a magazine pushing their way forward in order to become journalists? Yes, please! As a journalist myself, I was curious to learn more about the women who had been trailblazers in the newsroom. I enjoyed watching the show, but was disappointed that it ended so abruptly (Amazon decided to axe the series after the first season). Did the women win the lawsuit? What happened to them afterwards? How would their actions affect their relationship with their male co-workers? Did they achieve what they set out to do?

Luckily, “Good Girls Revolt” was based on the book by Lynn Povich, one of the ringleaders of the lawsuit. In 1975, five years after filing the complaint, the author became the first woman Senior Editor in Newsweek’s history. Reading the book gave me all the answers I sought. In addition to retelling both the struggle and success of the Newsweek women through numerous in-depth interviews, Povich also shows that despite their best efforts, there are still some things that actually haven’t changed where women in the workplace are concerned. In the current “Me Too” era, that decries sexual harassment and discrimination at work and in everyday life, it becomes clear that there remains much work to do, and that we constantly have to be on our toes to avoid moving backwards.

Favorite character?

This is not a novel, so there aren’t any “favorite characters” per se. I will mention, however, how intriguing I found it to read about the women’s background and their motivation to join the lawsuit. While some of them truly aspired to be journalists and wanted nothing more than to see their name in the byline of the articles they had so thoroughly researched for their male counterparts, others didn’t see themselves as rebels - instead, Povich writes, they were “women in transition, raised in one era and coming of age in another, very different time.” This was especially true for middle-class women, who were young and white and had a college education: they suddenly had the opportunity to be more than a mother and housewife, yet to really be able to reach that next level, they still had to go up against deeply held values and traditions.

It’s also important to mention that the five black researchers on the staff refused to join the rest of the Newsweek women. One of them, Diane Camper, later explains the reason: “There was a feeling that there had been all these conversations going on among the white women about agitating for more women to be reporters and we were an afterthought. At the time, there was more identity with race than gender. People just didn’t see the strategic advantage of joining in.”

Another researcher, Leandra Hennemann Abbott, adds: “Here was the women’s lib movement and while I certainly could identify with that, it seemed to me that women’s liberation wasn’t out front in support of black liberation and never reached out to black women. I believed the difficulties we felt were because of being black and that a lot of the issues for white women didn’t apply to us because we didn’t have a choice. (…) Our issues were larger than the work world.”

Most memorable quote?

“During and after World War II, there had been several women writers on the magazine, but they had all mysteriously disappeared by the early 1960s. Any aspiring journalist who was interviewed for a job was told, ‘If you want to be a writer, go somewhere else - women don’t write at Newsweek.’”

Conclusion?

While the series on one hand added in quite a few fictional and overly dramatic story lines (yes, I get it, it’s TV, and it’s not actually a complaint), and on the other hand couldn’t include all the details, the book relays the facts. It is well researched - Povich interviewed many of her co-workers for the book and therefore can add many different voices and perspectives. It’s a fascinating recount of the Newsweek women, but also cleverly depicts the industry as a whole and the role of women during that time. When I was still working at a newspaper in Indonesia, we called the lead story of the features section - which was section C - our “C1 story.” Even when the newspaper had already changed in size and format, we still fondly referred to the lead feature as “C1.” Povich’s book reads just like that: a long and compelling C1 story. Of course, a 260-page story that radiates the vibe and feel of a true journalistic piece may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It was, however, definitely mine.

AT A GLANCE

Title: The Good Girls Revolt - How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace

Author: Lynn Povich

Published by: Public Affairs (2016)

Pages: 264

Language: English