rockin the boat exhibit sponsorship
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
Originally exhibited fromJuly 5-August 31, 2014
at the
ROCKIN’ THE BOAT:THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT of THE 60S AND 70S
After World War II, the Rosie the Riveters who built the planes that wiped out Hitler were sent home. Back in their kitchens, many began to have new thoughts about their roles in life. Soon their daughters dared to discover their own strength and voice. Arguing for the right to go to college, to make a career and still be a woman, sisters marched for others’ civil liberties, for an end to the Viet Nam War, and to demand even more than women’s rights. They sought women’s liberation. The examination of this Second Wave of Feminism includes stories of questioning, unlearning, daring, marching, building, changing, rising, uniting, moving forward. Two decades of struggle resulted in changes across the board for American women. What have we learned? Where do we go from here?
An EXPLORATION of the SECOND WAVE of FEMINISMRights that most women take for granted today were hard fought—by women, for women.
WOMEN in the WORKPLACE: WW II
50s and 60s CIVIL RIGHTS:CRADLE of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
BETTY FRIEDAN and the FEMININE MYSTIQUE
the FORMATION of NOW
TAKIN’ IT to the STREETS: WOMEN’S LIB
EQUAL PAY and EQUITY LAWS
SDSU WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM
the FEMINIST ARTS
OUR BODIES/OURSELVES
The EXHIBIT STORIES
WOMEN CAN PLAY HARD TOO: TITLE IX
As well, a variety of Community Programming can be developed around the exhibition highlighting the achievements of both local and national women of the era.
Examples at theWomen’s Museum of California included:
Film Screenings: “Building Resiliency”“Feminist Stories of Women’s Liberation”“Makers”“Sisters of ‘77”“Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement”
Speakers’ Forums:The Political ArenaActivists Who Made It Happen
Plays:“Back to Normal” by Anita Rodriguez- Yellin Simons
EXHIBITION CONTENTS:
Approximately 50 items including:-17 30”x 48” Rigid Display Story Boards- Photographs- Period LIFE and MS. Magazines- Period Dress- Ephemera (ERA marching plaques, posters, mannequin bedecked in activist buttons, t-shirts, albums) - Audio and Video Presentation- Handpainted “Why Women?” Title panel- Promotional Materials
Space Requirements:600-800 sq. ft. approximate
For further inquiries, booking, and availabilityplease contact:[email protected]
This exhibition was made possible and funded in part by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors andthe San Diego City Commission of Arts and Culture.
Venue will also be offered the opportunityto retain a staff member to supervise the installation and de-installation of the exhibition.
Voices Raised in Song
Feminist literature—fiction, poetry, social analysis—reached a select audience until women’s lib activists pushed their way into the mass market. Literally. In 1970, a group of women invaded the New York offices of Ladies Home Journal
and staged an 11-hour sit-in. The male editor felt the heat and inaugurated a recurring section devoted to feminist
issues, starting with an Equal Rights Amendment profile, an extensive list of women’s groups, and critiques of sex, love, work, marriage and divorce. Other women’s magazines reacted to the immediate increase in the Journal’s circulation and began to publish feminist articles. Gloria Steinem’s Ms. magazine, hit the stands in 1972, followed by
Feminist Studies, an academic journal founded by Ann Calderwood after the creation of Women’s Studies
as academic departments at San Diego State College in 1970 (now SDSU) and then at Cornell University. The
1970s experienced a burst of feminist periodicals, a handful of which are in print today.
MUSIC
Writing Our Own Story........................................
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Women singer-songwriters battled their way to commercial success and critical acclaim in the 1970s, armed with an abundance of talent.
Carol King’s stellar 1971 album, Tapestry, remains a classic. Formidable talents like Joni Mitchell, Joan Armitrading, Janis Ian, and Laura Nyro climbed the
charts alongside King. Nyro, King and Mitchell drew on personal experiences as young American women of the 60s and 70s for lyrics;
others were even more outspoken about women’s issues. Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” a 1967 cover of Otis Redding’s 1965 song, is considered a feminist anthem; but Australian feminist Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” is most directly associated with the Second Wave. Released in the summer of 1972, “I am Woman” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 99. Three weeks later, it fell off the charts. Radio stations refused to play the song, and many music critics dismissed it
as reflecting “all that is silly in the women’s lib movement.” Convinced that the song would succeed, Helen Reddy turned to television. She
performed “I Am Woman” on dozens of variety shows until women across the country began to call their radio stations, demanding they play the song.
Commercial success for a few women persuaded the notoriously slow major labels to add female musicians or bands to their rosters, like the now
almost-forgotten Joy of Cooking, Fanny, and Deadly Nightshade. In 1973, the first woman-owned-and-operated record label, Olivia Records, released its first effort: Cris Williamson’s “If it Weren’t for the Music.” Meg Christian, one of Olivia’s founders, covered Carole King’s “Lady” on the B side.
The EXHIBIT DETAILS