The Women Issue

Your “Special: Women in Their Time” feature in the September/October issue not only promises more than it delivers but misconstrues the meaning of the contemporary women’s movement. While it is true that Georgia O’Keeffe is a remarkable genius and that the Peabody sisters did good works and that hitching electricity to housework is a phenomenon, all any of the articles devoted to them do is confine women to what is traditionally and stereotypically either women’s work or inspirational and creative works. In doing so, you omit the great social revolution that the current women’s movement has accomplished. You ignore everything from suffrage and changes in credit law to changes in job descriptions, income levels, family structure, child care, clothing, language, the demeanor of men, the physical and psychological changes in women, and the enormous shift in politics.…

Women don’t need tribute. Reality will do.