Mass Media and the Shaping of American Feminism, 1963-1975

Beginning in 1963 with the publication of Betty Friedan''s The Feminine Mystique and reaching a high pitch ten years later with the televised mega-event of the “Battle of the Sexes”—the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs—the mass media were intimately involved with both the distribution and the understanding of the feminist message.

This mass media promotion of the feminist prof...