Feminist Movement

In her bestselling 1962 book "Sex and the Single Girl," Helen Gurley Brown dared to tell American women that they inherited their "proclivity" for sex, that it "isn't some random piece of mischief you dreamed up because you're a bad, wicked girl. " When her frank and exuberant mix of advice, exhortation and naughty girl talk became a publishing phenomenon, thousands of women wrote to seek her advice, and she would sit at home at night in Los Angeles, trying to answer them all. One night, her husband, the movie producer David Brown, had an idea while he watched her type.

In her new book, “Lean In,” Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg advises women to do just that. The  message is her “sort of feminist manifesto”: Take a seat at the table, speak up, and don't worry about pleasing everyone. If you want to make it to the top, you can't demure.  But what about women who find their calling outside of the workplace - like mothers who choose to stay home and raise their kids? Are they still feminists if they choose a domestic path? New York magazine recently sparked a debate with its cover story, “ The Retro Wife ,” by Lisa Miller.

On paper, the program of solos scheduled by the locally based American Repertory Dance Company at the Japan America Theatre on Friday promised to be provocative but uncompromisingly downbeat: a survey of mostly sad, small-scale feminist modern dance from the last 30 years. However, the illness of dancer Nancy Colahan caused the deletion of works by Lar Lubovitch and Peggy Baker.

In her bestselling 1962 book "Sex and the Single Girl," Helen Gurley Brown dared to tell American women that they inherited their "proclivity" for sex, that it "isn't some random piece of mischief you dreamed up because you're a bad, wicked girl. " When her frank and exuberant mix of advice, exhortation and naughty girl talk became a publishing phenomenon, thousands of women wrote to seek her advice, and she would sit at home at night in Los Angeles, trying to answer them all. One night, her husband, the movie producer David Brown, had an idea while he watched her type.

Nearly 2,400 women converged on sacred Indian ground last weekend for the third WomenChurch conference, seeking a vision of unity amid a mosaic of cultural and religious expressions. Participants seemed to generally agree on the conference theme, "WomenChurch: Weavers of Change," but it was clear that the road to change, in this case, is paved with debate, introspection and self-criticism. Speakers at the April 16-18 gathering at Albuquerque's downtown convention center minced no words.

Adrienne Rich, a pioneering feminist poet and essayist who challenged what she considered to be the myths of the American dream and subsequently received high literary honors, died Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz. She was 82. The cause was complications from the rheumatoid arthritis that had plagued her for much of her life, said a son, Pablo Conrad. "Adrienne Rich made a very important contribution to poetry," Helen Vendler, a Harvard University professor and literary critic told The Times in 2005.

"We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. " Those were the opening words of the Port Huron Statement, which I helped draft 50 years ago this summer as the founding document of Students for a Democratic Society. The statement, written in the idealistic early days of the New Left, laid out a vision for a nation in which racial equality would be finally achieved, disarmament embraced and true participatory democracy would become the norm.

Thurmond was indeed incorrect. These five women (and most in the feminist movement) are definitely not lovely ladies. FRED L. GREER Whittier

Regarding Gloria Gonzalez-Roth's comments about feminist Betty Friedan (Letters, June 14): It's my belief that abortion in itself is neither liberating nor is it at the heart of the feminist movement. I don't condemn or condone it, but am sympathetic to those women who have to undergo an abortion. Gonzalez-Roth voices a concern for educating women about the procedure itself, what it entails and what the long-term physical and emotional effects may be. I believe early sex education and the positive promotion of the use of birth control as a realistic approach to young adulthood may someday greatly reduce the necessity for abortion.

In her new book, “Lean In,” Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg advises women to do just that. The  message is her “sort of feminist manifesto”: Take a seat at the table, speak up, and don't worry about pleasing everyone. If you want to make it to the top, you can't demure.  But what about women who find their calling outside of the workplace - like mothers who choose to stay home and raise their kids? Are they still feminists if they choose a domestic path? New York magazine recently sparked a debate with its cover story, “ The Retro Wife ,” by Lisa Miller.

"We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. " Those were the opening words of the Port Huron Statement, which I helped draft 50 years ago this summer as the founding document of Students for a Democratic Society. The statement, written in the idealistic early days of the New Left, laid out a vision for a nation in which racial equality would be finally achieved, disarmament embraced and true participatory democracy would become the norm.

Adrienne Rich, a pioneering feminist poet and essayist who challenged what she considered to be the myths of the American dream and subsequently received high literary honors, died Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz. She was 82. The cause was complications from the rheumatoid arthritis that had plagued her for much of her life, said a son, Pablo Conrad. "Adrienne Rich made a very important contribution to poetry," Helen Vendler, a Harvard University professor and literary critic told The Times in 2005.

Blame the flower children. That seems to be the chief conclusion of a new report about the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal. The study, undertaken by John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the request of America's Catholic bishops, links the spike in child abuse by priests in the 1960s and '70s to "the importance given to young people and popular culture" — along with the emergence of the feminist movement, a "singles culture" and a...

Has feminism been replaced by the pink-ribbon breast cancer cult? When the House passed the Stupak amendment, which would take away abortion rights from women who get any government help purchasing insurance, the female response ranged from muted to inaudible. Soon after, when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that regular screening mammography not start until age 50, all hell broke loose. Sheryl Crowe, Whoopi Goldberg and Olivia Newton-John raised their voices in protest; a few dozen non-boldface women picketed the Department of Health and Human Services.

In the early 1970s, when discussing rape was still taboo and few victims reported the crime, feminist June Bundy Csida and her husband wrote "Rape: How to Avoid It and What to Do If You Can't." The goal of their landmark work, described as the first book-length feminist treatment of the issue, was to expose rape as "the No. 1 crime against women."

Re "A Higher Degree of Blame," Opinion, Jan. 5: Charlotte Allen's comments on the sexual harassment situation involving former Boalt Hall Dean John Dwyer were a much-needed antidote to other coverage. Elements of the feminist movement have veered toward prudery for decades, and we see the issue of that in overreactive rape-shield laws, sexual harassment laws, Megan's laws, etc. The wimpy demand for strict policies to "protect" women from playboys and the semantic sleight of hand that equates playboys with predators promotes a puritanical, police-state mentality.

What has Gloria Steinem learned while researching "Marilyn," due out in November from Henry Holt & Co.? The Ms. editor thinks Monroe would have supported the women's movement if she had lived long enough to witness it. Added Steinem: "Marilyn would have been 60 this year. If the feminist movement had existed, it might have saved her life." The actress studied art and literature at UCLA, trying to improve herself.

The Times deserves a compliment for its article on Concerned Women of America in the View section. The media have given such complete and devoted coverage to the feminist movement that one tends to believe that every woman over 3 and under 100 is a supporter of National Organization for Women, or one of the other organizations of that ilk. NOW doesn't represent my views on any issue that I'm aware of, and it is refreshing to read that thousands of...

Ruth Rosen's history of the post-World War II feminist movement begins and ends with quotes from poets. This is appropriate, for her book--like the best poetry--is an exploration of both reality and consciousness. She begins with Anne Sexton, a self-described "victim of the American Dream," and ends on a more hopeful note with Muriel Rukeyser. Rukeyser once asked, "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?" and then answered: "The world would split open."

It was 1963. John F. Kennedy was president. Betty Friedan had recently published "The Feminine Mystique," igniting the modern feminist movement. And in a vacant lot in Van Nuys containing three rundown bungalows, three homemakers opened a school where women could learn without the pressures of academia.