Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times
"I was eleven when I took up tennis at the public parks in Long Beach, California. The first day I hit the tennis ball I knew I’d found what I loved doing. There was something special about hitting the ball, the way it felt. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind." Billie Jean King -- Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times, By Lynn Gilbert. The oral biography of Billie Jean King from her days on the court.
"You know, whenever you break a tradition that’s 187 years old, not everybody’s going to love you. People who had volunteered to sponsor me, when the time came, ran out the door. On the other hand, some of the toughest people turned out to be my best friends. My two sponsors were both upstairs members. I could not get anybody from the floor to sponsor me, and some of those people had promised me. That was pretty tough. That’s hard to take." Muriel Siebert on being the first women to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. From her oral biography, recorded in Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.
When a friend suggested to me that I buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange I said, “Don’t be ridiculous.” He said, “There’s no law against it.” Then it became a challenge and a game. It took me about six months until I got up the guts to do it. I kept going over it in my mind: “Gee, I want to do it, no, I don’t want to do it.” I was “hocking” myself. Four hundred and forty-five thousand dollars is a lot of money for something that isn’t tangible. I also didn’t know how many of my customers would still continue to do business with me. I was earning my living on the commissions I got from institutions based on the research I did for them, and it would mean I would have to go from an existing brokerage firm, although a small firm, to being on my own. I would still clear through a major firm so there was no risk for my customers, but until you take a step like that you don’t know how people will react. You just don’t know." Muriel Siebert - Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.
"If you ever have a new idea, and it’s really new, you have to expect that it won’t be widely accepted immediately. It is a long, hard process. Till my dying day I will remember Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, in the film Marie Curie, coming back to the laboratory at night and seeing the glowing that meant they had discovered radioactivity. That was exciting! They knew they had it, but it was the culmination of a long process of blood, sweat, and tears. It was followed by a good deal more blood, sweat and tears. You don’t suddenly come out of your bath and say “Eureka!” Science is only in part like that." Rosalyn Yalow -- Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.
PARTICULAR PASSIONS recounts the rich oral historiesof pioneering women of the twentieth century from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics.
We share their journeys as they pursue successful paths with intelligence and determination, changing the world for the millions of women and men who were inspired by them.
These stories will captivate, educate, and inspire you.
"WHEN MY HUSBAND had his first heart attack in 1955, I knew I had to make a living. I remember one night, it was about two o’clock in the morning, and I was thinking, What shall I do? I hadn’t learned anything, I had no craft. So I said to myself, I have to start something. Probably it will be something I will do for the rest of my life, so it has to be worthwhile for me. I would like to contribute something. Whatever I start, I have to put in it everything, all my life experience, all that I love, and all that I am interested in. I decided I would like to publish. I would like to combine words and images and only words and images that I like." Tatyana Grosman -- Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.
Enjoy this short and inspirational chapter from Particular Passions.
"I never expected to run for Congress. It was not part of my game plan or anything like that. My decision came from years of frustration and disappointment and will, I guess. Finally one of the politicians I had helped to elect said to me, “Well, you always criticize. Why don’t you do it yourself?” I said, “You know, you’ve got a point there. I think I’ll do it." Bella Abzug -- Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.
"I do get burned out from time to time. In the beginning I thought, Well, this is something I’ll do for a couple of years. It’s so reasonable. Certainly if we just say what’s wrong, people will put things right. So I didn’t pace myself. I just went flat out, lecturing, organizing. I felt that this was a flat-out effort for a few years and then I would stop doing it and do something else. Since then I’ve realized that it’s something that will take a lifetime. It’s not just a year or two, it’s our whole lives. So that helps you to pace yourself. You realize you can’t be flat-out active all the time, that you need time to think and read. You’ve got to be active in cycles." Gloria Steinem -- Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times, by Lynn Gilbert.
The oral biography of Gloria Steinem, whose dedication to feminism and social justice continues to improve life for millions of people worldwide.
""In later years, if I’m remembered at all it will be for inventing a phrase like “reproductive freedom” because before that we talked about “population control,” which meant that someone else was going to make the decision, not us. It meant minority groups were understandably fearful that they were going to be controlled more than others. It wasn’t a feminist phrase because it implied control elsewhere instead of by us as individuals. So “reproductive freedom” as a phrase includes the freedom to have children or not to have children, both. So it made it possible for us to make a coalition. I think the revolutionary role of a writer is to make language that makes coalition possible, language that makes us see things in a new way." Gloria Steinem
The oral biography of Gloria Steinem, whose dedication to feminism and social justice continues to improve life for millions of people worldwide.
"The kind of writing I’d like to do has to do with both theory and reporting. Thesetwo things have to be hooked up. I think that’s what feminism has to contribute to the world at large; that you can’t just write theory out of no reality, that you have to start as we started, in consciousness-raising groups, and say, Here’s the real situation and here’s the theoretical conclusions that the real situation leads to. The separation between experience and theory is part of the whole split between the intellectual and emotional that’s such a problem. I mean, it just doesn’t exist. It’s part of the male/ female split in our culture that has caused us to cut off qualities in ourselves. It’s not that there aren’t two sides to some things. I’m sure there are, but there aren’t two sides to everything. There are eleven, or a hundred and fourteen or one, and it’s a gross distortion of reality to say there are two sides or to say there has to be a winner or a loser. Reality is much more diverse and interesting than that, and all the splits of intellect and emotion and body and mind should be mended. Feminism is the belief that women are full human beings. It’s simple justice." Gloria Steinem
The oral biography of Gloria Steinem, whose dedication to feminism and social justice continues to improve life for millions of people worldwide.