Yours in Sisterhood

In the winter of 1972 the first issue of <i>Ms.</i> magazine hit the newsstands. For some activists in the women’s movement the birth of this new publication heralded feminism’s coming of age; for others it signaled the capitulation of the women’s movement to crass commercialism. But whatever its critical reception <i>Ms.</i> quickly gained national success selling out its first issue in only eight days and becoming a popular icon of the women’s movement almost immediately.<br/>Amy Erdman Farrell traces the history of <i>Ms.</i> from its pathbreaking origins in 1972 to its final commercial issue in 1989. Drawing on interviews with former<br/>editors archival materials and the text of <i>Ms.</i> itself she #examines the #magazine’s efforts to forge an oppositional politics within the context of commercial culture.<br/>While its <i>#status as a feminist </i>##and# mass media magazine gave <i>Ms.</i> the power to move in circles unavailable to smaller more radical feminist periodicals it also created competing and conflicting pressures says Farrell. She examines the complicated decisions made by the <i>Ms.</i> staff as they negotiated the multiple — frequently incompatible — demands of advertisers readers and the various and changing constituencies of the feminist movement.<br/>An engrossing and objective account <i>Yours in Sisterhood</i> illuminates the significant yet difficult connections between commercial culture and social movements. It reveals a complex often contradictory magazine that was a major force in the contemporary feminist movement.