Good Girls Revolt is an Amazon original series that cleverly weaves the story of a group of women working in a fictional newspaper company “News of the Week” in New York City during the 1970s. During that time, the unwritten rule in the company was that all reporters and writers were men, whereas women were merely researchers that are paired up with the men, supplementing them with any interviewee quotes, historical background, and sometimes even ideas for the entire article. Unfortunately, men were always given the byline and recognition, even if one of the women had done the majority of the work.
The first turning point was triggered by Nora Ephron, a new female researcher who had written her male reporter’s article when he was unable to do so, even though he was still given the byline. Nora spoke out against this unfairness in front of the entire staff, but was dismissed by her boss, which led to her immediate resignation. The other women were stunned and bewildered at Nora’s action, having never seen this kind of the bold defiance before.
It is interesting to note here that Nora Ephron was a real Academy award winning writer and filmmaker (her works include Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry met Sally, and Julie and Julia). While the events were fairly exaggerated in the Amazon TV show, Nora did quit the magazine company “Newsweek” because she was not allowed to write, and filed a lawsuit against sexual discrimination in the workforce.
Below is the character Nora Ephron (played by actress Grace Gummers, daughter of Meryl Streep)
Going back to the show, after Nora’s incident at News of the Week, injustice and the fight for equality started to slowly seep into the women’s hearts. A chain of events slowly builds up toward the lawsuit that the women filed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as a complaint towards their bosses for not letting them become reporters and journalists.
This brilliant show throws a good punch because it is not merely a feel-good form of media entertainment, but was carefully crafted to make us think about social issues. It shines light on everything that women are fighting against for so long: unequal pay, sexual harassment, unbalanced opportunity, racial discrimination, oppression, conforms of society on marriage and career…all thoughtfully explored in the conversations and interactions between the characters. It creates a powerful narrative that combats against the dominant ideologies in society. This is precisely what we as women are striving for collectively: to provide a platform and support for each other in a place that has, historically, been unwelcoming.
These feminist notions prompted me to think about the goal of Her Campus—the effort to change the communication landscape to better include and reach women, particularly in the fields of journalism, business, media and marketing. This lifestyle publication was created by three strong college women from Harvard University, with the hopes of creating a platform tailored to the needs of female college students. And their efforts haven’t stopped there—Her Campus is not only providing readers with lifestyle content, but they also offer internships and working experiences in business and media, bringing practical and concrete approaches in addition to abstract values. These three women clearly had female empowerment in mind when they built this organization, pushing forward an idea that can bring us more closely together in a community that celebrates each other.
These are the co-founders and brains behind Her Campus: Windsor Hanger Western, Annie Wang and Stephanie Kaplan Lewis (from left to right)
Overall, it is undeniable that the talk about feminism is not fading away anytime soon. And I need not describe in detail the marches, protests and movements that is like a mind-blowing domino effect in the recent two years. Good Girls Revolt ties strongly with Her Campus even in its fictional setting and characters, and because of its timelessness, it successfully invites everyone to speak to these problematic issues that we are still currently facing.
Ladies, we are in the age of revolutionary change.