(1921-2014) was a trailblazer with a special connection to the 妻友社区. Known for her impeccable appearance in Peck & Peck suits (who remembers these??) when everyone else was dressed in jeans, she was an 鈥渋mprobable鈥� feminist whose indomitable spirit and can-do attitude attracted her to the women鈥檚 movement early on and whose wise and witty speaking ability allowed her to become what the Long Island Newsday described as 鈥渢he respected mouthpiece of the women鈥檚 movement.鈥� In 1974, she published a forward-looking edited volume titled Woman in the Year 2000, with provocative chapters by authors ranging from Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin to Alvin Toffler. In 1988, she donated her extensive feminist book collection to the 妻友社区 Center for Research on Women (as we were then called), after it was rejected by her own alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Her donation established the Madelyn B. Tripp Library, an intimate reading room filled with both important classics and lesser-known volumes that were influential in their time.
Recently, we added a particularly special volume to the library: , subtitled The Delicious Adventures of Maggie, Who Lived by Her Own Rules as Daughter, Wife, Mother, Businesswoman, Professor, Author, Public Speaker鈥nd True Feminist (Archway, 2015). This book, part memoir and part posthumous tribute, was written by Maggie鈥檚 husband, Alan R. Tripp 鈥� Maggie鈥檚 biggest fan and a 鈥渨omen鈥檚 movement man鈥� in his own right. This delightful and illuminating book combines personal anecdotes about Maggie in each of these roles with excerpts from her writings and speeches, to provide not only a historical record of an important figure in the second-wave women鈥檚 movement but also food for thought today.
If you look carefully through the New York Times Book Review this weekend, you might just find this new book. It is the perfect read for a train ride or the beach side (where I myself read it this summer), and its anecdotes are shareable even with young feminists (read: teenagers) of any gender. It鈥檚 the kind of book that even people who don鈥檛 call themselves feminists will relate to and enjoy, and yet seasoned feminists will learn something new, too. It鈥檚 a true feminist family affair!
Alan Tripp has described Maggie as both 鈥渂lunt鈥� and 鈥渃harming鈥� 鈥� a combination of attributes that helped her break down barriers and advance the women鈥檚 agenda in her time. As a young student at Barnard, she found the rules archaic and confining and took her complaints to the school鈥檚 famous dean, Virginia Gildersleeve. The dean challenged Maggie to 鈥渞esign鈥� if she didn鈥檛 like the rules, which Maggie did, choosing to continue her studies at Penn instead. There鈥檚 a wonderful story in the book about how, later, in 1968, Maggie moved to New York and stormed into the registrar鈥檚 office of the New School for Social Research asking to take courses 鈥渨here the action is.鈥� The registrar directed her to women鈥檚 studies, and the rest is history. From there Maggie became a women鈥檚 studies instructor, author, speaker, organizer, and general firebrand! I encourage you to learn more about the life of this colorful mover and shaker who is very dear to all of us at WCW!
Layli Maparyan, Ph.D. is the Katherine Stone Kaufmann 鈥�67 Executive Director of the at .