Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End by Sara M. Evans

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    M ANY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES have aided me in the years I worked on Tidal Wave , and I must apologize in advance in the sure conviction that I will not remember all of them. My initial editor, Joyce Seltzer, first hatched the idea with me and helped to frame my thinking as I started into the project a decade ago. Even after she left Free Press, she cheered my work from the sidelines and I have always appreciated her wisdom, enthusiasm, and friendship.
    Since the early years of off and on work on this project, I have had the good fortune to enjoy the assistance of current and former graduate students at the University of Minnesota. They not only gathered materials but also challenged me intellectually and made this a better book. I am extremely grateful to Katherine Meerse, Chris Sharpe, Mari Trine, Beth Salerno, Josephine Fowler, Mike Lansing, and Sharon Leon. The time to do this work and the ability to hire assistants were made possible by grants from the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota, the McKnight Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center.
    The critical feedback of colleagues has also been invaluable. From early papers presented at the University of Minnesota workshop on comparative women’s history and Center for Advanced Feminist Studies to a round-table at the Berkshire Conference on Women’s history I have received thoughtful and provocative responses. I owe more than I can say to many groups of friends and colleagues who have listened, read, and encouraged both directly and indirectly: These include Group 22, the Serendipity group, the Comparative Women’s HistoryWorkshop, my Re-Imagining small group, participants in sessions at professional meetings, and the many campus and community groups who allowed me to try out ideas in their early stages. Cheri Register and Charlotte Bunch read chapter drafts and responded to ideas in their early form. Linda Gordon, Rosalind Baxandall, Elaine Tyler May, Riv-Ellen Prell, Sally Kenney, Barbara Welke, Chuck Dayton, and Josephine Fowler read the complete (or nearly complete) manuscript. Their feedback sharpened and clarified my thinking. For editorial clarification I am especially grateful to Bruce Nichols, my editor at The Free Press, and to Chuck Dayton. Chuck’s poetic sensibility, in particular, made this a better book. The flaws that remain are altogether my responsibility.
    Tidal Wave is about the power of sisterhood, and I have experienced that power in my own life. I dedicate this book to two of these sister-friends, Elaine Tyler May and Riv-Ellen Prell, who have been a continual source of both intellectual and personal support for more than a quarter century. Their friendship across the decades is an incalculable gift, and they stand in for the many others I would love to name.
    My family has also been a constant source of sustenance. My parents, my brothers and sisters-in-law, and my children have supported my work over the years and also provided me with a context that keeps my priorities clear. My husband, Chuck Dayton, is the light of my life. This book was nearing completion when he showed up, but his support has been crucial. Now I look forward to the next phase of our adventurous life together.
    —Sara M. Evans
    July 2002

History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
    —Seamus Heaney, from The Cure at Troy

TIDAL WAVE

INDEX
Abbott, Sidney, 50, 122
Abortion, 46-47, 49, 53, 56, 93,100, 129, 140, 141, 161, 167, 182, 196, 197, 225
movement division over legalization, 25
opposition to, 112-13, 140, 171-72, 228
racial attitudes, 34, 35, 36
violence against providers, 182-83, 214
Abrams, Robert, 227, 228
Abzug, Bella, 53, 61, 67, 71, 72, 73, 75, 93, 112, 136, 140, 141, 213, 237
Academia, 83-84, 220, 221
ACT-UP, 208, 217
Adam, Margie, 207
Addams, Jane, 210
Affirmative action, 83,