Publisher's Weekly Review
This smart, clear-eyed history of the National Organization for Women's most tumultuous years spotlights three women who were "loyal yet critical" members of the advocacy group. According to University of North Carolina historian Turk (Equality on Trial), these women were instrumental in stretching the organization's "core belief--a centrally organized feminism for all women and their male supporters--in different directions as far as they could." Aileen Hernandez, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who worked as a union organizer before joining the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965, saw feminism at the heart of every social justice movement. Serving as NOW's second president, she pushed the organization to address all problems women faced--including racism, classism, and homophobia--and not just gender-specific ones. Former beauty queen Patricia Hill Burnett, a wealthy white Republican, was a Michigan housewife and mother of four who envisioned NOW in the vanguard of an international feminist movement. As a member of the national board through 1975, she was tasked with setting up NOW chapters around the world. Meanwhile, Mary Jean Collins, who was raised Catholic in a lower-class white Wisconsin community, focused on securing male allies for NOW and was appointed the organization's Midwest regional director in 1970. Detailing how failed initiatives, such as the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, led to internal divisions among NOW's leadership and members, Turk expertly unpacks a complex institutional legacy. The result is a timely addition to the history of "second wave" feminism that illuminates today's debates about women's rights. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
How the influential women's organization evolved. Historian Turk tells a lively story of the development of the National Organization for Women by focusing on three activist members: Aileen Hernandez, Mary Jean Collins, and Patricia Hill Burnett, women whose vastly different backgrounds shaped their views on feminism. Hernandez (1926-2017), a New Yorker, was the daughter of Jamaican immigrants. In 1965, after a decade spent organizing textile workers, she was appointed to the newly established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, she soon became disillusioned "in her quest to make government power work for women." Burnett (1920-2014), married to a wealthy Detroit businessman and the mother of four, was a frustrated artist, chafing against society's "expectations for a moneyed white wife." Collins (b. 1939) was raised in an Irish Catholic family that struggled financially, and after college, she worked in the corporate world, where sexism was rife. Turk traces the women's careers and growing influence in NOW: Hernandez became its second president, succeeding Betty Friedan; Burnett led the organization's international program; in the 1980s, Collins became one of NOW's two vice presidents. The author also reveals the "smoldering disagreements," internal rivalries, and financial problems that beset the organization from the start. Disagreements arose over NOW's position on the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion; lesbian, transgender, and Black women felt excluded from NOW's largely White, middle-class membership. Turk recounts NOW's protests against sexism "in churches, law, employment, beauty pageants, Little Leagues, advertising, toys, and more," and she sets the organization's goals and strategies in the context of an increasingly polarized political arena. Admitting that she considers herself a beneficiary of NOW's achievements, she recognizes that she lives in a world "where elite women can scale the heights of influence while their sisters suffer crushing inequality and insecurity; a world where sexism thrives, but often in disguise; a world whose backlash to feminism is evidence of the movement's continued power." The book includes 16 pages of black-and-white images. A thoroughly researched and well-balanced history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Author and history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Turk (Equality on Trial, 2016) brings readers the history of the National Organization for Women (NOW), largely seen through the eyes of three women: Aileen Hernandez, Patricia Hill Burnett, and Mary Jean Collins. Each of these women was a very loyal yet also quite critical member of NOW. The goal to achieve equality and move feminism forward wasn't an easy one for NOW or its members. The intersection of feminism and other equal-rights fights was also grappled with, as members dealt with the fact that being a woman and, for example, a person of color or member of the LGBTQIA+ community were inexorably linked. From feminist movements in America to NOW's inception to the organization's rallying behind the push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and expansions both nationally and worldwide, The Women of NOW gives an in-depth look at a vital part of feminism in America. The perfect read for those interested in women's history, American history, and politics.
Choice Review
It is easy to think that everything that could be written about the National Organization for Women (NOW) has been covered already, but Turk (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) proves otherwise. Rather than focus on the usual suspects (e.g., Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Eleanor Smeal), she considers the less well-known members of NOW to demonstrate that the organization embodied a highly mutable movement with room for lesbians, people of color, and even conservatives. Turk does not downplay the high-level arguments that took place over these controversial topics, but she ably shows that at the local level chapters could fall behind compelling guides with these types of intersectional identities. Aileen Hernandez, Patricia Hill Burnett, and Mary Jean Collins exhibited leadership skills that transcended their ethnicities, sexualities, and political beliefs. By focusing on these three women, Turk brings freshness to her topic, and she offers a new interpretation of its importance without ignoring the problems that plagued NOW. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. --Rachel Anne Standish, San Joaquin Delta College
