I’ve been particularly irritated by all the news lately, so I welcomed the entertainment escapism of Valentine’s Day. I went so far as to watch Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightly. Man, wasn’t she a lucky girl in her day, so modern? Now Valentine’s Day is over. There are no more chocolates or Hugh Grant romantic comedies on tv, no more desperate women hoping to make their life complete with a guy.

I jumped back into my Amazon Prime viewing with Good Girls Revolt from 2016. And now I’m angry at myself for buying into all the Valentine’s Day hooey, and ten times angrier at the news! But it’s a good angry! It’s a “call to action” angry.

Good Girls Revolt is set in 1969. With the rest of the world already in the midst of change and revolution, a New York newsroom is a holdout. And somehow even though they’re in the largest city in the United States, a group of female researchers has missed the cultural revolution. But they soon grow tired of giving credit to men for all their brilliant work.

Good Girls Revolt is set when those in power started thinking America was becoming lost. There were still a few moments of greatness though, as evidenced by airplanes having leg room, no secondhand smoke laws, and no women holding credit cards in their name (because they couldn’t.) Men could also sexually harass women openly at work without women batting their heavily laden eyelashes. Doesn’t it sound great?

The reasons men got away with all this for so long are beyond me. But here are five reasons I loved Good Girls Revolt!

Fashion & Hair

The show nails the fashion of the day. I know, I know, how can I be indignant about silly romance shows after Valentine’s Day and point out the girly fashion and hair. But it’s revolutionary stuff! All the styles are all old to us now. Now we can get away with jeans anywhere. Back then few guys wore anything but suits and ties. But women had the 1950’s traditionalists and the hippies, all clashing in the office. And fashion plays a part in the story.

Music & Props

Luckily there is no Pat Boone on the show. The entire soundtrack is late 1960’s. And you’ll love the little things, like the lamps collected by one character, and all the rotary and pay phones. It will make you long for the old days when sometimes people couldn’t be reached by phone, and sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper.

History Lesson

I studied this period in history, all the turmoil and upheaval. But this series makes you feel it. It’s a microcosm of how it must have felt back in the day, the thrill and the real fears of everyone involved. You get a picture of how difficult it was for everyone during this change. The times are brilliantly depicted with personal lives you can identify with and through the eyes of reporters covering small stories created by the bigger social picture.

A Reminder of How Good We Have It

For most readers, Good Girls Revolt was the reality of our mothers or grandmothers. And for me, it’s a screaming endorsement of why we can’t go back to that time. It dawned on me that I have it great right now! I never realized how much until now.

My father was a good guy. He took care of us. He put my mother on a pedestal. And he is fairly open-minded. But this show gave me flashbacks of my father complaining about having ANY females in his office. He retired from the Federal government in the 1990’s before I started my own career. My own father, working for our government, never had a female co-worker, only subordinates, despite the equal opportunity laws that came out of the 1960’s. This series opened my eyes to this insanity.

I Love my Husband Even More

An even less palatable memory of my teen years, was my father saying to me, his youngest child and only daughter, that he wasn’t concerned about what I studied, or if I even went to college, because I “just had to find a husband.” He claimed later it was a joke, but my mother hadn’t thought so. I can’t imagine being in the shoes of the women in earlier generations, with the only options in life being a potentially bad marriage or a low paying secretarial job.

Many men think the movement was bad for men and children and marriage. But with this new found knowledge of generations past, I find I love and appreciate my husband even more. What man wants a woman to settle for him because they have no other options in life? None that I’d want.

Good Girls Revolt can be binge-watched on Amazon for free with a Prime membership.

Leslie Gayle

Leslie is a one time CPA, wife and mom of twins. She’s an over thinker who loves karate, thunder, and travel. Her sweatpants are yoga pants and she takes her coffee with milk.

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