Gail Collins, New York Times columnist
and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's
lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style"
(People).
When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American
women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card.
It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign.
This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years,
expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a
generation. A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen
research--covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex,
families, and work--When Everything Changed is the definitive
book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made
since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of
"Help Wanted--Male" and "Help Wanted--Female" ads, and the lifting of
quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. Gail Collins
describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly
through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who
simply made their way.
Picking up where her highly lauded book America's WomenWhen Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the
down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New
York Times columnist is known. Older readers, men and women alike,
will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once
were--"Father Knows Best" and "My Little Margie" on TV; daily weigh-ins
for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston
marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers
will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with
drama and dreams--some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's
imagining.
We're honored to present Gail Collins, the bestselling author of When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. Ms. Collins was the first woman to take the mantel at the New York Times editorial page from 2001-2007. She continues to write a column for the Op-Ed page twice weekly. 