An Important ‘70s Feminist Documentary is Resurrected 42 Years Later [Video]
The documentary “Year of the Woman” originally played for only five nights in 1973 before disappearing. The film, which captures a fascinating moment in feminist history has been resurrected. Directed by poet Sandra Hochman, the film is about the 1972 Democratic Convention, when the National Women’s Political Caucus (founded by feminist movement pioneers like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem) is trying to convince the Democratic candidate George McGovern to make abortion legalization part of his platform. McGovern ended up not only not supporting the abortion plank, but also inviting an anti-abortion activist to speak.
In her essay, “Miami,” which was re-published by The Huffington Post, Ephron describes the convention and the role that women played in it. “The McGovern people had been opposed to the plank because they thought it would hurt his candidacy; at the last minute, they produced a right-to-lifer to give a seconding speech, a move they had promised the women they would not make,” Ephron wrote. In a poignantly sharp anecdote, she describes an interaction that an irritated Steinem, fresh off the betrayal, has with a Time reporter who interviewed her for a McGovern profile. The reporter had written that Steinem gave McGovern advice on what to wear. “I don’t talk to him about things like that. He listens to men about clothes,” Steinem told the reporter. She later tells Ephron, who was present for the confrontation, that “[i]t’s just that if you’re a woman, all they can think about your relationship with a politician is that you’re either sleeping with him or advising him about clothes.”
In her book of essays, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Steinem reflects on the 1972 Convention: “Women are never again going to be mindless coffee-makers in politics or unconfident reporters who fail to see our own half of the world. There is no such thing as a perfect leader. We have to learn to lead ourselves.”
The Washington Post called the film itself “too radical, too weird and too far ahead of its time for any distributor to touch.” Hochman herself calls the film a “fantasy” instead of a documentary. In the trailer, ‘70s movie star and heartthrob Warren Beatty asks Hochman with a smirk, “Are you a female chauvinist?” She replies, “Yes, I am. I’d like to see women take over the world.”
Now you can rent or buy the film on Vimeo. It is worth a watch if you want to see how hard women have fought for political rights — and how hard they still are fighting to this day.
Related:
8 Ways Gloria Steinem Improved Our Lives
At the DVF Awards: Hillary Clinton on Why Women Need to Lead