Makers: Women Who Make America
Posted by Michelle Moquin on February 26th, 2013
Good morning!
Making of MAKERS: Stories of Women That Changed America
She had to do it! Kathrine Switzer is a marathon runner. In 1967, she joined hundreds of men in the 26-mile Boston marathon, proudly displaying number #261 on her chest. Participating in the marathon was her dream and she didn’t even give a second thought about what that would mean to the thousands of American women. She just wanted to run. And she did. But a simple act of running turned into something larger when a marathon host caught up with her, grabbed her arm and tried to yank her out of the race. “Get the hell out of my marathon,” he screamed, shocked and ashamed to see a woman in the runners’ midst. She kept running. And it dawned on her — this is more than just a marathon now, this is a statement. She remembers thinking: “I’m going to finish this race on my hands and knees if I have to… If I don’t, then everyone will think that women can’t do it.”
She finished the race in 4 hours and 20 minutes. “I started the Boston marathon as a girl and I finished Boston marathon as a woman,” Switzer says.
That is the opening story of MAKERS: Women That Made America, a three-part documentary about courageous women like Switzer who redefined the image and the purpose of an American woman from a homemaker into a decision-maker of her own life, tracking 50 years of change and celebrating that change. Narrated by three-time Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, Makers: Women Who Make America takes its cue from the movement’s motto, “The personal is political,” delving into the personal lives of its subjects.
For the first time ever, the documentary will air on PBS at 8 p.m. on February 26 (check local listings).
I was a fan of the online video experience MAKERS for a long time, religiously following their tweets from @MAKERSwomen and the watching new episodes of women (both known and unknown) who influenced the way women are viewed in the American society. The film, and online experience, is built from first-person, intimate accounts of women who experienced this time of change, including movement leaders such as author and feminist activist Gloria Steinem and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; opponents such as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly; celebrities including media leader Oprah Winfrey and journalist Katie Couric; political figures such as former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; business leaders such as Linda Alvarado, president and CEO of Alvarado Construction, Inc., and a co-owner of The Colorado Rockies; and many “ordinary” women who confronted the dramatic social upheaval in their own lives.
These are stories never before told. When I found out about the premiere, I was so excited I reached out to the two brilliant women who founded MAKERS, Dyllan McGee and Betsy West, to talk to them about the story behind the initiative. They were kind enough to send me the documentary prior to the interview and I watched it with my breath held.
I watched the story of women who got higher education just to stay at home and raise kids. A noble role. I am a mother myself, and I know how important that role is. But a lot of women wanted more, they wanted a voice. Author Judy Bloom remembers: “When I started to write [women in my neighborhood] laughed at me. ‘What makes you think you can do this?’ they said.”
“Career woman” was a dirty word. And as women rose around America to speak the truth and to ask for more, “freedom trash cans” started to fill up with the “objects of women’s oppression”: high-heel shoes, brooms, dust pans, curlers, bras, girdles. “Women, use your brains, not your bodies!” the feminist movement asked. Diane Nash, the Civil Rights activist, says with a smile: “I remember the day that I realized that I could be the principle in my own life. And that was really a revolutionary thought.”
I watched in awe the footage of women across the country marching for their rights. The women’s movement was like a tsunami, there was no stopping it. Gloria Steinem was in the center of the movement when she started her own magazine, Ms. Magazine. Male news anchors laughed, they didn’t expect it to survive. But the women across the country were starved to know that they were not alone in their secret desires of wanting to be something more than just a wife and a mother. They devoured the brutally honest content and felt its power. “It is comforting to know one is not alone” one of the letters to Ms. Magazine said.
Patricia Schroeder, a former congresswoman and the 14th woman to become one, remembers people asking her this question: “How can you be a mother and a congresswoman?” Her answer: “I have a brain and I have a uterus and they both work.”
The movie closes with this: “The women’s movement is the biggest social movement in the history of the planet earth, because it affected everybody: women, men and children.” The stories of courage, confidence and empowerment deeply touched me and reminded me of why I have the privileges I now have. I finished the movie, gently tucked it into its cover and put it into the stack of my favorite movies promising myself that when my 4-year-old daughter becomes a teenager, I will take it back out and watch it again, together with her, start to finish.
In 2005, Dyllan McGee went to Gloria Steinem and asked her to tell the story of her life. Steinem, in her typical Gloria egoless way, said no. She suggested there was a bigger story that needed to be told and she wanted to tell collective stories, not just one. And so McGee went back to the drawing board and what she shockingly discovered was that the story of the women’s movement has never been told before. She saw the opportunity, but wanted to do it right. And to do it right, she knew that the film wasn’t going to be enough and that she needed a robust digital platform and pivotal partners in this. McGee and Betsy West joined a cast of partners: PBS, AOL and Simple ® facial skincare. Both McGee and West hope that MAKERS serve as an educational platform for girls and women out there.
“I am inspired by watching the underdogs succeed and I love telling those amazing stories,” says McGee. “MAKERS is a perfect example, it is a story of how trailblazing women transformed American society. My passion is connecting the next generation to these stories we are telling in MAKERS so we can have 50 more years of change.”
And you think that this platform is for women only, think again. 48% of the traffic to the MAKERS.com is male. This is the story that touches everyone. McGee says: “When my boys and I are watching a TV, they say ‘Why isn’t there a woman there, mom? You got to get a Maker up there.’ I think it’s equally important for boys to know the story as it is for girls.”
When I asked what women featured in MAKERS videos have in common, McGee said: “These women are all driven by passion. Money is never the biggest driver; it’s doing something with their lives.” Betsy West, a winner of multiple Emmy awards, elaborates: “”Will back bone and a passion for what they do, they pushed forward to pursue their dreams.”
West talks about the times when she was at ABC news and that many women worked as associate producers on the night time news. These women were in their late twenties and worked so much that that didn’t leave much time for anything else in their lives and they started calling themselves the News Nuns. She fondly remembers how women supported each other and worked together to help each other succeed.
For Kathrine Switzer, those 26 miles of Boston marathon was a defining moment. I asked Dyllan McGee what is her defining moment. “If MAKERS can inspire the next generation to be makers in their own right, I’ll call that a victory. I will feel like I’ve completed my marathon.” West’s 18-year old daughter is a young generation maker in her own right. She has applied for an all-men program. “I want to be a pioneer, do something challenging, and make a difference,” she told her mother.
The advice the producers would give to women?
Dyllan McGee: “Go for your dreams! You can do it! You don’t have to be famous to achieve your dreams.”
Betsy West:
“Find what inspires and excites you and go after what you are passionate about. Don’t be discouraged by failure. Everybody stumbles, especially when you are starting out. It’s hard to recognize. You see all those accomplished women who seem so confident and then you hear about the struggles that they had in the beginning. The lesson here is: don’t be discouraged.”
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, said: “I read my way into feminism.” Well, the next generation will watch and listen their way into the movement. And that is what MAKERS is trying to accomplish with the robust video platform that they’ve built: they want to give courage and inspiration to the generations of women that follow.
Here’s a clip:
Watch MAKERS: Women Who Make America Trailer on PBS. See more from Makers: Women Who Make America.
I’m looking forward to watching this. You?
Lea: I remember blogging about the brown tree snake problem in Guam years ago. This is just way out of control. I HOPE that whatever is done to resolve it works, and ends this long nightmare. Hafa Adai.
Howie: Happy Birthday!! I HOPE your day is whatever you wish it to be. Have fun!
Blog me. Peace & Love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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February 26th, 2013 at 5:00 pm
Hmm, open sesame?!
Not much to say today, deep into the working thing…but wanted to see if today is one of those days when I open the luvfest!
Caio!
Luv, Zen Lill
February 26th, 2013 at 7:54 pm
I’d be happy to be lucky enough to open those legs.
February 26th, 2013 at 9:01 pm
Yeah me too, Me. I don’t see anyone parting them from this vantage point. Taking bets everyday though.
February 26th, 2013 at 9:20 pm
Okay, I’ll play. “Open Sesame.
February 26th, 2013 at 9:24 pm
What I cant understand is why does the President get backed into the crappy deals and then at the last minute starts to warn of what will happen.
Maybe if you stood up to the Repubs in the first place you wouldn;t be in this pickle.
I remember the Bush tax cut expiring and the Repubs crying about that – instead of the President saying yeah let them expire but now somehow after all of that people making 400k end up with a permanent tax cut, which takes money out the economy.
The president make crappy deals and the middle class always ends up losing in the end and giving up more than the rich. If you follow the pattern, it always ends up this way. Just wait with the sequester, after all is said and done the middle class will have to sacrifice more than the rich.
Just watch!
February 26th, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Happy Birthday Howie. I wish you many more.
I know you have lots of fans here who feel the same. They must be blocked from getting in so I’ll say it in echo of Michelle’s good wishes and those who cant: Happy Birthday!! How today was special for you.
/SB
February 26th, 2013 at 9:28 pm
A liberal I agree with..Bottom line, 400 people with the wealth of 150,000,000 or about 50% of the population. Don’t need to be an economist, hey, somethings wrong here. Jobs that pay minimum wage are not going to grow an economy. A small increase in minimum wage will insure that money gets spent because anyone living on minimum wage is barely living or consuming.
Get off this left/right divide…wealth is being consolidated by a handful of elite. Look at the interconnectedness of major corporations and the same handful of people running them. Free trade, MFN, and all other benefits that ship well paying jobs overseas to reduce labor costs made corporations and stockholders rich. But, as the wealth becomes more consolidated, fewer will be able to buy and those promising new markets, a billion Chinese and all those in India, guess what, you ain’t paying them either….so who is going to buy your products? Who is going to be able to afford any thing beside survival?
47% are on the government..what when its 75%…does a rich/poor nation last? Look at Central America and South America. Pay living wages and provide jobs to have a very large middle class (increases tax base/keeps tax rates low) or in a generation be ready to have it all seized as either a communist party prevails or a fascist party prevails to restore order. History has lots of examples.
February 26th, 2013 at 9:29 pm
Ive been in business for myself since 1999, and sir you are completely wrong. Thing’s started going down hill 2003-4. And yes Im still in business, barely though. And none of this economic calamity is due to “democrat’s” this has been a long time in the making. Deregulation of the financial industry along with gutted trade agreements and a full scale invasion are the culprits.
February 26th, 2013 at 9:30 pm
Democrats have no clue what truth is. The truth is that every time the Democrats had control of anything they screwed it up All the problems that we are having happened when the Democrats took control in 2007. And Bush did not help when he caved and went along with the Democrats. I hope the Democrats take complete control of the House because then America will wake up and see how destructive the Democrats are when they give the county over to the Chinese which is what Obama and the Democrats really want.
February 26th, 2013 at 9:38 pm
This maybe the beginnings of a good political conversation, but I am more interested in Zen Lill. Who has had the pleasure of her undoubtedly splendid company?
Please, please, do tell.
Oh Zen Lill, I mean it in the most polite way. I would be content to sit in your shadow and bask.
Henry
February 26th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Damn, men can be so funky at the slightest provocation, or not. My friend’s boyfriend just ran his hand up my skirt. I don’t know if I should smack him or just let him keep the tampon.
February 27th, 2013 at 5:33 am
Gloria, don’t be a hater.
February 27th, 2013 at 5:48 am
I have a story about a woman who changed my world. It was my big sister, Pam. I was 7 years old she was 12. I told my parents about Father Michael who had made me blow him. They didn’t believe me and took me to see the pedophile to make me apologize.
After they left me with him he sodomized me. I took it for three more months and finally I told my sister. She followed me to the church I showed her where he always took me. She hid in the back of the room. When he brought me in, she waited until he undressed me and took his robe off he was naked underneath as usual. She through batter acid on him. While he was squirming in pain, she hit him on the head with the side of a ball ping hammer she brought. While he was out she got me to hold his head and she poured the rest of the battery acid into his eyes.
Then she called our parents and told them to come to the church. She called the nuns as they were entering the parish and she told them both to look at what this bastard was doing to her little brother. They sent me home. My sister refused to leave, she later told me that he claimed it was an accident that he caused himself.
Chris
I never saw the creep again. She is and always will be my hero. I never was close to my parents again. They recently attended an event to celebrate with my University for a large donation I gave it. My sister insisted that I invite and forgive them. As always she is wise beyond her years. I can never repay her, but I do what I can to support women’s causes, they are the best.
February 27th, 2013 at 5:53 am
Let the gay people have their rights, what are you gonna do force them to marry women
February 27th, 2013 at 8:41 am
When Reagan took office, the debt amounted to just under 1 trillion dollars- it grew to nearly 3 trillion. The only time it shrunk after that was during the last few years of Clinton. Then it doubled again under W. yet you blame liberals.
February 27th, 2013 at 8:42 am
Howie, how are you doing? Hope it goes well. Your comments are missed.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:00 am
Happy Birthday Howie. I couldn’t get in yesterday. But a birthday wish should be made to such a special regardless.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
February 27th, 2013 at 9:02 am
Howie, Russia has had it’s alien scares. I tried to get in yesterday to wish you a Very merry birthday. I love reading your alien chronicles.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:03 am
Sorry Howie, I didn’t know. I trust your big day was great.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:06 am
Howie ————–HAPPY BIRTHDAY——————–
Me and my sisters adore your comments about non alien affairs. My brother says you are the Man for All Things Alien and should not be bothered with this birthday stuff.
I say phooey on him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY——————HOWIE——————HAPPY BIRTHDAY
from the Russell sister and their stubborn brother.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:07 am
So, who knew? Happy Birthday Howie
February 27th, 2013 at 9:09 am
We here in Alaska also appreciate your alien comments. Sometimes it is the only thing that keeps us warm. Happy Birthday Howie.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:11 am
Couldn’t get in to wish it yesterday, Still can’t figure how Zen Lill does it. I guess it is a GIRLZ’s privilege. Still HAPPY BIRTHDAY Howie.
Hope your health is better. I miss your column.
Dancia
February 27th, 2013 at 9:12 am
Why am I always the last to know. Bet ole Howie is off in Space somewhere having a grand old time.
Happy Birthday my man.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:13 am
Howie, this muslim girl wishes you the best on you special day.
Saabira
February 27th, 2013 at 9:15 am
lHowie, I gave it the full monty trying to get in yesterday. But I see I was not alone. Happy Birthday my man.
February 27th, 2013 at 9:16 am
Who is this Howie? Michelle’s husband?
Why is his birthday so important?
February 27th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Howie, I had a bet that the blog would go down on your Birthday. I figured Carr was behind it. Bet you are way out and will return with some great alien stories.
I work for an american telephone company. I answer questions from their customers who call from America. I sometimes wish I could ask them if they know you.
I have saved most of your alien comment for the 2 years I have been a fan. سالگرہ مبارک ہوی (Happy Birthday Howie)
February 27th, 2013 at 9:22 am
יום הולדת השמח האווי
February 27th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Joyeux Anniversaire Howie
February 27th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Vic, you must be really new, Howie is our resident Man ON-ALL-THINGS- ALIEN.
Didn’t know it was your birthday yesterday, but here’s a sincere belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Clark
February 27th, 2013 at 9:28 am
Howie, my brother called from Afghanistan to tell me post a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.