Fearless Women

November 21, 2022
Feminism is an integral part of the American story, according to this immersive timeline of the fight for women’s equality. Contending that feminists “saw themselves as helping the United States achieve its own goals,” historian and novelist Cobbs (The Hello Girls) highlights the movement’s role in the abolition of slavery, the creation of a social safety net, and other progressive milestones. She devotes each chapter to a different era and its “key development”; for example, the decades between 1920 and 1960 are focused on the “right to earn.” Each chapter also contains a dual biography of one public-facing individual who fought for change and one who is less well known, but was deeply affected by the issues at hand. To that end, the 1920–1960 chapter is divided between Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, who helped push through the 1935 Social Security Act, and Ann Marie Riebe, a North Dakota rancher who fought to maintain her economic independence while remaining unmarried. Cobbs’s novelistic skills shine as she dramatizes policy debates and draws on personal memoirs and other sources to bring each woman to life. She also raises the profiles of underappreciated activists of color, including Martha Cotera, who pushed to make feminism part of the Chicano movement in the 1960s and ’70s. Feminists will savor the depth and intimacy of this optimistic survey.