Sons, Daughters, and Patriarchy: Gender and the 1968 Generation

Few studies have made gender central to their analysis of the international 1968, although most acknowledge the rebirth of feminism as one of its most profound and lasting legacies.1 In Western Europe, Japan, and parts of Latin America, histories of contemporary feminism invariably place its origins in 1968, even if the movements themselves usually emerged a year or two later. In the United States, a new feminist movement was already under way, debuting in the mass media in September 1968 with a demonstration at the Miss America Pageant. Even studies that give short shrift to women acknowledge in passing that feminism and dramatic challenges to gender relations were among the primary legacies of the activism of the “1968 generation.”2 It is an interesting lacuna, then, that leaves these claims under-analyzed.3 Not only will an investigation...