50/50

When the girl babies of the '50s boom went home to their two-parent suburban houses no one knew they would become the women's liberation generation. They are the women who PBS producer Rachel Dretzin said made a journey unlike any other generation through a time of profound change and upheaval. This book invites 10 women to share their stories of that journey. Beginning with childhoods that often fell short of the Ozzie and Harriet image of the 1950s they recall when growing up female meant growing up second-class. By the '70s their paths diverged to colleges careers marriages. Around them swirled the turbulence of civil rights Vietnam a growing drug culture and the emergence of the women's movement. Today they describe themselves as independent aware and empowered. Reading this book is like sitting down to enjoy coffee and conversation with 10 extraordinary women.