Women talking

Duration: 80

Year Published: 1971

Creator: Midge Mackenzie Productions

Format: 16mm

Color: B&W

Sound: sound

Description: Leading personalities in the forefront of the women's liberation movement relate personal consciousnes-raising experiences and offer views on the roles of contemporary women. Danny Hughes communicates intimate revelations concerning society's definition of women in solely sexual terms. Betty Friedan comments on the dehumanizing strictures imposed upon women by patriarchal structures, and in particular, on the inhibiting force of the feminine mystique which prevents women from controlling their own reproductive processes and realizing their potential. Criticizing men's inherent sense of power, Laurie Zimmer relates how a male companion expressed indignant outrage over an article she wrote proposing the necessary social measures for the realization of women's rights. Susan Silverman became involved with the women's liberation movement in an organic way when she feared that she was pregnant and was faced with getting an abortion. She traces her feelings of alienation to the gender stereotypes reinforced in her working-class family and extended by the school system. Kate Millett discusses the need to combat exploitation and violence against women around the world. She attributes the feelings of guilt she experienced when she was molested as a girl to the patriarchal teachings inculcated by her convent school education. For Selma James, the success of the women's liberation movement is dependent on re-working society as a whole and addressing the lives people live. In marked contrast to the opinions voiced by the feminists are the responses offered by the homemaker contestants of a Mrs. Alaska Pageant.