Women Who Invented the Sixties

While there were many protests in the 1950sagainst racial segregation, economic inequality, urban renewal, McCarthyism, and the nuclear buildupthe movements that took off in the early 1960s were qualitatively different. They were sustained, not momentary; they were national, not just local; they changed public opinion, rather than being ignored. Women Who Invented the Sixties tells the story of how four women helped define the 1960s and made a lasting impression for decades to follow. In 1960, Ella Baker played the key role in the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which became an essential organization for students during the civil rights movement and the model for the antiwar and womens movements. In 1961, Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities, changing the shape of urban planning irrevocably. In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, creating the modern environmental movement. And in 1963, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, which sparked second-wave feminism and created lasting changes for women. Their four separate interventions helped, together, to end the 1950s and invent the 1960s. Women Who Invented the Sixties situates each of these four women in the 1950sBakers early activism with the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Jacobss work with Architectural Forum and her growing involvement in neighborhood protest, Carsons conservation efforts and publications, and Friedans work as a labor journalist and the discrimination she facedbefore exploring their contributions to the 1960s and the movements they each helped shape.