WOMEN MONEY POWER

A history of women’s struggles for economic rights and financial freedom.

Focusing on the period from World War II until the present, journalist and broadcaster Cox explores women’s progress in the fight for economic equality. The author zeroes in on the personal and professional stories of those who were especially influential in this history, along with a look at “what ultimately went wrong; why, fifty and sixty years ago, progress seemed abundant with promise and why now, in 2024, it appears to have stalled so dramatically.” A clear strength of the book is Cox’s attention to the contributions of lesser-known figures in the liberation movement as she chronicles in revealing detail the significance of “unsung heroes” such as Alice Paul, Pauli Murray, Shirley Chisholm, Lindy Boggs, and Muriel Siebert. The author’s commentary on Murray’s life is particularly astute; she not only highlights her extraordinary achievements as an activist on behalf of women and people of color, but also illuminates the often intersecting goals and strategies of the feminist and Civil Rights movements. Cox persuasively argues that contemporary understandings of intersectionality are deeply indebted to Murray’s work. Also memorable is the discussion of the development and wide-ranging impact of the birth control pill. The emergence of the pill at the beginning of the 1960s was the culmination of long-standing efforts on the political, legal, and scientific fronts to secure reproductive freedoms, and its economic ramifications were enormous. A major obstacle standing in the way of equality today, the author ultimately demonstrates, can be found in the striking gap between women’s and men’s pay across a range of professions. That gap, research shows, “has hardly budged for years.” Cox offers an accessible and instructive overview of how money and power have intersected with gender in modern America.

A vigorous, often inspiring account of women’s quests for economic equality.