Turning Points: Finally Real

The feminist recalls how the fragments of her life snapped together to make a whole

I was about 35 when the women's movement got under way. Up to then I'd been a free-lance writer, rebelling secretly but hoping no one would notice. Even after feminism began, I thought the movement was just something I would do for a couple of years--to help get things started, like Ms. magazine, the National Women's Political Caucus--and then I would go back to my real life. I was still imagining that my real life hadn't happened yet when my 50th birthday came along in 1984. My friends asked to make it into a gala benefit for Ms. magazine and the...

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