Saturday, January 5, 2013

When Newsweek's Women Said 'No'

The revolution changed America. It also rocked the newsroom.


On a Monday morning in March 1970, Newsweek’s cover on “Women in Revolt” hit the newsstands. It was the first serious treatment of the women’s movement by a major newsmagazine. Ms. magazine, the bible of the movement, would not be launched until the following year. But any satisfaction the male editors might have enjoyed about their enterprising journalism was dispelled by a press conference held that same morning by the women of Newsweek to announce they were suing the magazine for gender discrimination.
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In 1970, 46 women employed by Newsweek announced that they were suing the magazine under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (Bettman / Corbis)
The fallout from that lawsuit, which the women won, chipped away at the “Mad Men” culture that had reigned for so long, bringing women into the conversation and changing the way Newsweek reported on a broad array of issues that would over the decades transform life as I had known it.

Click here to see the whole article by Eleanor Clift

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