Nancy tells Linny she received information from last episode’s guest, and author, Debra Curtis, about her daughter, Emma’s bra company. She makes bras for women with disabilities, dexterity issues, or who just want a fabulous front closing bra using magnets for the closure. The company is Liberare.co Today we’re reviewing the book, WHERE THE GIRLS WERE by Kate Schatz. This book is set in 1968 San Francisco. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Phillips, whose nickname is Baker, is a high school senior. She’s set to be her school’s valedictorian, she plans to go to Stanford for college and become a famous journalist, and probably live in Paris along the way. But then, her older and more free-wheeling cousin, Mae, invites her to a party where she indulges in what it would feel like to be the not-so–perfect daughter and she falls into a passionate, secret relationship with a young hippie, Wiley. Thanks to Peter Dyer at Random House for the Advance Reader Copies of this book. The book is being released just a day or two before we publish this episode! This book takes us to a very turbulent year in the United States, 1968, and we live through it through Baker’s eyes and the upheavals she is personally facing. 1968 was the year of the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and intense civil unrest. 1968 saw major political shifts, including LBJ's decision not to run for reelection, violent protests at the Democratic National Convention. 1968 is also known as the beginning of a new era of sexual freedom, though it was certainly a contentious concept. The birth control pill had been approved in 1960 and IUDs in 1968, allowing women to separate sex from childbearing and facilitating the "sexual revolution". However, access to contraceptives for single women remained restricted in many areas and most doctors required parental consent for unmarried women under 21 to receive birth control. Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to any sort of artificial contraception, rejecting recommendations made by his predecessor, Pope John XXIII. California and several other states were broadening access to the total ban on abortions, but only where there is "(1) substantial risk that continuance of the pregnancy would gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother; [or] (2) the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest." Abortion for any other reason was illegal and therefore dangerous. Sparked by the need for safer, more accessible care, women began creating their own health resources to challenge the male-dominated, paternalistic medical establishment. Baker is a high school senior with a lot of dreams, but she feels very oppressed by parental expectations. She feels that they are living through her and gaining social status through her successes. She has always been the good girl and her focus on academics and getting into a good school has meant she hasn’t even had many close friendships. So, in many ways, she’s been sheltered, but still is under a lot of pressure. Parents (Gerald and Rose) are strivers, not particularly happy. Live through Baker. So, something’s gotten give, and it does. She knows nothing about sex and really isn’t even familiar with her own body, and rarely even looks at herself in the mirror. She certainly isn’t familiar with any sort of birth control. So, when she and Wiley have spontaneous sex on New Year’s Eve, their quick assessment is she won’t get pregnant because it’s been a couple weeks since she had her period and the moon isn’t out. She pretty quickly becomes infatuated with Wiley. Baker has very little information from her parents. Linda points out that Baker’s parents were born around the end of WWII in a more conservative time. Although Rose didn’t provide much information to Baker before or after the pregnancy, Linda never doubts that Rose loves Baker. Nancy had her doubts. The author really makes it clear that when Baker does become pregnant that it is entirely her problem to solve. Wiley already moved on to other women and is off to Mexico to evade the Vietnam draft and live the surfer’s life. Nancy liked that Wiley was just a boy looking for a good time. She thought he was very believable. Nancy loved how the title of this novel explores the untold story of the results of free love. Many examples of how women bear the consequences of sex so differently than men do. 1960s: good girls didn’t have sex, but there was no similar judgement of boys. Girls got bad reputations and I suppose boys got good reputations from having sex. Girls were sent away and their lives disrupted and boys got to continue with their lives. At one point, Baker says, “If men could get pregnant, I bet it would be different.” Linda thinks Baker’s dad, Gerald, is an important figure in that he is so absent from helping Baker at all. He is the breadwinner and expects Rose to solve issues around their child and house. Baker decides to get an illegal abortion in some sketchy, back-alley sort of situation, but is scared away. Then she does nothing for months until her mom figures out she’s pregnant and then tells her to hide it and not to ask any questions, that she will take care of figuring out Baker’s future. Rose is more a “pretend it’s not happening and keep up a good front” sort of person. I think it was Rose’s change that, for Nancy, was one of the most affecting. She goes from being pretty concerned about only herself and projecting a perfect image to finally, figuring out how to be there for Baker. Linda says Rose really had no choice at that point, but she wasn’t surprised that Rose helped Baker, because she understood that Rose loved Baker from the beginning. We meet other girls who are also pregnant. Nancy notes that, even in the home, the girls had very little information about what was going to happen to themselves and their babies. Decisions were made for them. Linda liked how they all came from different circumstances. Baker decides to break out of the home for unwed, pregnant girls and start making decisions for herself. Nancy and Linda liked the commune portion of the book. Their parents took them to two different communes, so it felt familiar! Nancy hoped the commune was not where Baker would end up because it didn’t seem like a choice she would make. For Nancy, the ending wasn’t the hinge the book opens and closes on, so the ambiguity was fine for her. Linda loved the ambiguous ending to the book. She also felt that Baker grew during the book and she knew that Baker would make a decision about what would work for her. Though, Linda does think Baker is still very naïve. Linda says several times during the conversation, she thinks of the movie GREASE and the differing stories Danny and Sandy tell at the beginning of the movie. Linny says the 1960s is really her generation. She said she had peace and love and she saw herself as a flowerchild. She had braids, too. She also remembers being warned from taking drugs from teenagers. Nancy is surprised that Linny was ever in a position she was mingling with teenagers. Nancy reminds Linny she would have only been 8 years old by 1970. Next episode, we welcome Kate Schatz, author of WHERE THE GIRLS WERE.