“Extraordinary Women” Film Series: Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement, 1941-1977

This inspiring film is set against a backdrop of decades of war, prosperity and reform. The stories of the participants beautifully illustrate the continuity and diversity of 20th-century feminism, as they describe the labor, civil rights, and political movements of the ’40s and ’50s that led them to take independent action for women. Using well-chosen archival footage, stills, music, and primary-source narration, producer Joyce Follet offers a first-rate, panoramic-yet-personal view of the women on feminism’s front lines. The 1998 film runs 56 minutes.