The Good Girls Revolt

How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace

By: Lynn Povich

Narrated by: Susan Larkin

The inspiration behind the Amazon original series

It was the 1960s - a time of economic boom and social strife. Young women poured into the workplace, but the “Help Wanted” ads were segregated by gender and the “Mad Men” office culture was rife with sexual stereotyping and discrimination. Lynn Povich was one of the lucky ones, landing a job at Newsweek, renowned for its cutting-edge coverage of civil rights and the “Swinging Sixties.” Nora Ephron, Jane Bryant Quinn, Ellen Goodman, and Susan Brownmiller all started there as well. It was a top-notch job - for a girl - at an exciting place. But it was a dead end.

Women researchers sometimes became reporters, rarely writers, and never editors. Any aspiring female journalist was told, “If you want to be a writer, go somewhere else.” On March 16, 1970, the day Newsweek published a cover story on the fledgling feminist movement entitled “Women in Revolt,” forty-six Newsweek women charged the magazine with discrimination in hiring and promotion. It was the first female class action lawsuit - the first by women journalists - and it inspired other women in the media to quickly follow suit. Lynn Povich was one of the ringleaders.

In The Good Girls Revolt, she evocatively tells the story of this dramatic turning point through the lives of several participants. With warmth, humor, and perspective, she shows how personal experiences and cultural shifts led a group of well-mannered, largely apolitical women, raised in the 1940s and 1950s, to challenge their bosses - and what happened after they did. For many, filing the suit was a radicalizing act that empowered them to “find themselves” and fight back. Others lost their way amid opportunities, pressures, discouragements, and hostilities they weren’t prepared to navigate. The Good Girls Revolt also explores why changes in the law didn’t solve everything. Through the lives of young female journalists at Newsweek today, Lynn Povich shows what has - and hasn’t - changed in the workplace.

©2012 Lynn Povich (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great description of an important moment in history

Great story and a very detailed and accurate portrayal of this important change for women. Although the book was wonderful, perhaps it is meant to be read in a book because all of the women's names get very confusing.

Women Take Charge of The Sexism In Workplace--Sue

Women in the 60's take charge of the sexism that is keeping them down. Newsweek was a hotbed of good writing but it was only the men who were allowed to be reporters. The women were relegated to the research and the drafting. Sometimes their work was taken as it was written and published by the men. Not fair! Well, no it wasn't fair and the women decided to do something about it. This book is about the women at Newsweek who joined the group to sue Newsweek for fair treatment. It was done as a group and took some time to convince everyone that talking to management would not fix the problem or else there would be no problem. They went to the ACLU and were met by Eleanor Norton Holmes, then a young attorney starting out. She convinced the women that they must get a backbone and be willing to stay the course. The book is compelling and the fact that many women lived the sexism that was the 1960's and even 1970's makes it relevant to today's working world. Nothing is freely given and that is why in 2016 a women earns about 3/4 of what a man is paid. So, women need to look around them and decide if they want to continue being underpaid for the same job, or even passed over in favor of a less qualified man, or do they want to take charge and fight for equal rights. I think equal rights are long overdue but I was a working woman in the 60's and could related to this book in every way. The narrator did a good job.

Slow, but all in all okay

After seeing the race reviews of the shows I thought I'd check this out. Maybe it's not the right book for Audible. I found it to be a little slow and lacking direction. It was still interesting from a historical perspective, but...meh.

Never knew this history

This is powerful right through the epilogue. Thank you to the author for sharing this important history! I read this book after watching the series The Good Girl Revolt. They never should have cancelled that show. We need to bring it back for season 2 that never happened! Excellent show and excellent acting! Great work!

what a great book!

this book makes me proud to be a woman and proud of the women that fought so hard for the rights I now an fortunate enough to enjoy. great job ladies!

Feminism has been mis-defined for years

Modern women need to understand what feminism was and is. Don't believe the politics. Read the real story or women's rights.

Good book read by Ms Robot.

I liked the story. informative and we'll written. it caught a moment in history. The narration was very hard to listen to, like a computerized robo-call voice. I finally sped up the narration so I could just get through it.

A great story but Terrible narrator

As many others have said this is a fascinating story but the worst narration I have heard on Audible. How did the narrator get away with so many mispronunciations?

Great history lesson

This book tells a very important story about a point in time where women were sexually liberated, then discovered that they needed to be liberated in so many other ways. It was a consciousness raising, thoughtful journey after which I concluded that there is still a long way to go before we reach true equality. The performance was painfully robotic and the info was very dryly presented (like a history book). I prefer the “Good Girls Revolt” Amazon Prime series which brought this story to life. Sadly, the show was cancelled after just 10 episodes. I wonder if that was a sexist discriminatory decision? Hmmmm

Unfortunately just ok

I hoped for more from this book. It was a little too focused on names and dates and less on narrative. It was also a little too self congratulatory.

My biggest complaint was the narrator, however. She seemed to struggle to pronounce some last names of major characters. Most frustratingly, no one corrected her multiple mispronunciations of Barnard College. (It's "BAR-nard", not "ber-NARD".)