Maggie Doherty

She realized that you couldn’t simply tell women to work hard and keep studying if the world didn’t give them the tools and resources to do so

Though the diplomat George F. Kennan first used the term “containment” to describe American foreign policy with regard to communism in 1947, the word applied equally well to domestic life. Deviance and “softness” could not be tolerated; “red” and “lavender” menaces had to be stopped. Homosexuals, communists, and political dissidents faced public shaming. Meanwhile, women were asked to surrender the freedoms—of movement, of dress, of affiliation—they had guarded closely since V-J Day. They put down their books and wrenches and picked up spatulas.

“Dancing the Jig”