Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times
"WHEN I FIRST RAN for Congress, people said to me, “How long have you been a feminist?” And I said, “I suppose from the day I was born.”
– Bella Abzug, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times', by Lynn Gilbert The oral biography of Bella Abzug, an outspoken crusader for peace and human rights who heralded in an era of social change.
"I dressed like a queen. Even then. I always dressed, and my family always saw that I could have very beautiful clothes. People thought if you looked like that and you already had expensive and gorgeous, expensive clothes and jewelry and everything, how could you use old woods in your work? There probably wasn’t one person on earth that understood what I was doing. At the time, you see, the work was different, old wood, nails, mirrors and glass, all the goddam things."
– Louise Nevelson, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times', by Lynn Gilbert. The oral biography of Louise Nevelson, whose work and vision elevated sculpture to its current place of prominence in the arts.
"I never thought about what I wanted to accomplish in life. I had too many things to do. I was so deeply involved in things, I just kept on going. Then something came along and changed the direction. I went off with it. I didn’t know where it was going to lead me. It just keeps on leading me."
– Grace Murray Hopper, from 'Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times' by Lynn Gilbert
The oral biography of Grace Murray Hopper, whose work with early computers transformed mathematical symbols into words, helping to usher in the era of technology.
This brief chapter is available for .99 on Amazon and Apple, one of 42 chapters that recounts the accomplishments, frustrations and passions of the great women of the 1920s - 1970s.
"My family wanted me to be an artist, although there were no artists in the family. It was simply that they were interested in art, they liked the idea. I used to draw (horrible drawings they were) when I was a child, so they said, “Obviously she’s going to be an artist,” and I was pushed at it. My father was an architect and engineer, and he went to some trouble to find out which one of the women’s colleges in the East had the best art department, and he picked Smith. I think it did perhaps have the best, and its museum was already outstanding. It offered plenty of courses in drawing and painting and of course I took every one of those."
– Louise Nevelson, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times,' by Lynn Gilbert. The oral biography of Louise Nevelson, whose work and vision elevated sculpture to its current place of prominence in the arts.
"My three kids are great. Who knows? They may think I would have been a better mother if it hadn’t been for the women’s movement, but I don’t think so. The way that you can have children now, when you’ve already started on your work and know what you can do, you are not subject to the guilts that women in my generation were. That was the worst, the guilts, the conflicts, the leaning over backwards against them. That put negative valences on one’s own enjoyment of motherhood. It’s such a short period. I wish that in the period when they were little, I wish I’d felt free to concentrate on them more. But when you’re under the aegis of the feminine mystique, there was the rebellion; and then to do anything at all, you’re going against the stream of society and you have your own guilts about what you’re doing."
— Betty Friedan, in Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times.
The oral biography of Betty Friedan, who fueled the women’s liberation movement that continues to work toward equal rights for women around the globe.
Finally women claimed their rightful place in history by creating Women’s History Month in 1980. Strange that women’s struggle, just to be treated as people took centuries to accomplish, because women are 51% of the population. And the struggle is still not over. The Catholic Church maintains its’ doctrine on faith and morals is definitive and infallible. Today the Vatican hierarchy is hit by scandals, priests’ sexual abuse of over 16,000 children worldwide, and intrigue and betrayals befitting a Renaissance court.
While men of the cloth at the highest level in the church hid their scandals, ordinary women came out in the open because of what they desired to contribute. Read stories of these women, who used their abilities in the face of great obstacles to make extraordinary things happen.
“Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times,” is the first collective record of the experiences of pioneering women, in multiple disciplines from the 1920s to the 1980s, as told in their own words. It is available at Amazon and Apple.
The 42 women included in the book, such as Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Grace Murray Hopper share their passions. The book is not about accolades or titles, but what inspired and enabled them to succeed where none had gone before.
“This is a wonderful book... The book is recommended reading for anyone — no matter what political or sociological background — who wants to know more about living history.” — Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Betty Friedan turned the world topsy-turvy, with her landmark book “The Feminine Mystique. Women viewed themselves from a new perspective setting in motion changes for themselves and between the sexes that were unthinkable. Fifty years has seen more radical changes in women’s identity, how women function, women’s relationship with men, than going back to the beginning of time. We haven’t achieved complete success in our goals which are constantly changing, but the massive machinery Friedan set in motion has great staying power and will help us get there... wherever "there" is.
As she said in my book, Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Have Shaped our Times “The way... you can have children now, when you've already started on your work, and know what you can do, you are not subject to the guilts. That was the worst, the guilts, the conflicts... That put negative valences on one's own enjoyment of motherhood. It's such a short period. I wish I'd felt free to concentrate on them more.”
To put our lives in historical perspective read Friedan in her own words in a chapter from Particular Passions. You'll find things like the guilt about motherhood remains the same, but others that have changed dramatically… for the better.
Available at Amazon or Apple for only $0.99. It's a treat and a bargain. As good as a caffe latte and cheaper.
"Every woman owes it to herself to look up Particular Passions—borrow the volume from your public library. Or, better still, buy it and put it with your favorite novel or poetry collection to sustain you. Every story in the book is an inspiration. This book is a joy and a tonic." — Pioneer Press and Dispatch.