On August 26, 1970, the fiftieth anniversary of woman suffrage, tens of thousands of women across the country—from radical women in jeans to conservatively dressed suburbanites, peace activists, and politicians—took to the streets. They carried signs reading “Sisterhood Is Powerful” and “Don’t Cook Dinner—Starve a Rat Today.” Some of the banners opposed the war in Vietnam, others demanded racial justice, but women’s own liberation stood at the forefront.

Becoming visible by the late 1960s, a multifaceted women’s movement reached its high tide in the 1970s and persisted into the twenty-first century. By that time, despite a powerful countermovement, women had experienced tremendous transformations in their legal status, public opportunities, and personal and sexual relationships, while popular expectations about appropriate gender roles had shifted dramatically.