She's Beautiful When She's Angry

In 2014, director Mary Dore released “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” the first documentary film to comprehensively chronicle feminism’s second wave in the United States. This groundbreaking 92-minute work recovers the voices and stories of the women who transformed American society between 1966 and 1971, bringing to life a revolutionary moment when women across the country organized, protested, and demanded fundamental changes to laws, institutions, and cultural norms that had kept them subordinate for centuries.

Historical Context and the Birth of Second-Wave Feminism

The documentary begins by situating the women’s liberation movement within the broader social upheavals of the 1960s. Following the civil rights movement, anti-war protests, and student activism, women who had participated in these struggles began to recognize that they faced discrimination not only in mainstream society but also within progressive movements themselves. Women were expected to make coffee, type memos, and provide sexual and emotional support to male activists while being excluded from leadership and decision-making roles. This contradictionfighting for justice and equality while experiencing sexismsparked consciousness-raising discussions that evolved into organized feminist activism.

Key Organizations and Grassroots Mobilization

Dore’s film highlights the diverse organizations that emerged during this period. The documentary features:

The National Organization for Women (NOW), founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan and others, which initially focused on employment discrimination and legal equality. The film shows how NOW grew from a small group of professional women to a national organization with chapters across the country, organizing demonstrations, filing lawsuits, and lobbying for legislative change.

The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, whose members created “Our Bodies, Ourselves”a revolutionary book that provided women with accurate, non-judgmental information about their bodies, sexuality, and health. The documentary captures how this grassroots effort to share knowledge became a feminist classic, translated into dozens of languages and empowering millions of women worldwide.

The Jane Collective in Chicago, an underground abortion network that provided safe, affordable abortions before Roe v. Wade. The film features interviews with former Jane members who describe the risks they took and the thousands of women they helped, operating outside the law because the law failed women.

The Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, which brought together diverse feminist groups working on childcare, reproductive rights, workplace organizing, and consciousness-raising. The documentary shows how this coalition model allowed women with different priorities to support each other while maintaining autonomous projects.

Core Issues and Campaigns

The documentary examines the key concerns that defined the movement:

Employment Discrimination: The film documents how women organized against sex-segregated want ads, unequal pay, pregnancy discrimination, and barriers to professional advancement. Through archival footage, we see protests at newspapers that ran “Help WantedMale” and “Help WantedFemale” advertisements, demonstrations at companies that fired women for getting married or pregnant, and campaigns for equal pay legislation.

Reproductive Rights: A central focus is the fight for reproductive autonomy, including access to contraception, safe and legal abortion, and freedom from forced sterilization. The documentary features powerful testimonies from women who sought illegal abortions, activists who challenged restrictive laws, and members of the Jane Collective who provided alternatives when the system failed.

Sexual Liberation: The film explores how feminists challenged the sexual double standard, fought against rape and sexual violence, and claimed women’s right to sexual pleasure and autonomy. We see consciousness-raising groups where women shared experiences of sexual coercion, violence, and the policing of their sexuality, transforming personal pain into political analysis and action.

Childcare and Domestic Labor: The documentary highlights demands for affordable, quality childcare and recognition of women’s unpaid domestic and care work. Activists argued that without childcare, women’s employment opportunities remained limited, and that the assumption that women alone were responsible for children perpetuated gender inequality.

Revolutionary Methods and Tactics

“She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” showcases the creative and confrontational tactics feminists employed:

Consciousness-Raising: The film explains how small group discussions where women shared personal experiences became a revolutionary tool. By connecting individual experiences to systemic patterns, consciousness-raising transformed women’s understanding of their lives and galvanized collective action.

Direct Action: The documentary features dramatic footage of protests, sit-ins, and disruptionsfrom the 1968 Miss America protest where feminists crowned a live sheep and threw bras, girdles, and makeup into a “freedom trash can,” to occupations of buildings and disruptions of all-male meetings and conferences.

Alternative Media: The film documents the explosion of feminist publicationsnewspapers, journals, and manifestosthat provided spaces for women to articulate their analysis, debate strategies, and build community outside mainstream media that ignored or ridiculed their concerns.

Cultural Production: Through archival materials, we see feminist theater, music, art, and literature that challenged dominant representations of women and created alternative visions of gender, sexuality, and power.

Honest Reckoning with Divisions and Exclusions

One of the documentary’s most important contributions is its refusal to romanticize the movement. Dore honestly addresses the divisions and blind spots that plagued second-wave feminism:

Race and Class: The film acknowledges that the movement was predominantly white and middle-class, and that many of its priorities reflected the concerns of privileged women. Black feminists, Chicana feminists, and working-class women challenged the assumption that all women shared the same experiences and interests. The documentary features voices pointing out how employment discrimination looked different for women of color who had always worked (often in exploitative conditions), how reproductive rights discussions often ignored forced sterilization of Black, Indigenous, and Latina women, and how the movement’s leadership and visibility remained overwhelmingly white.

Homophobia: The documentary confronts the “lavender menace” controversy, when NOW and other mainstream feminist organizations tried to distance themselves from lesbian feminists, fearing that association with lesbianism would discredit the movement. The film shows how lesbian feminists fought back, challenging heterosexism within feminism and arguing that lesbian oppression was fundamentally linked to gender oppression. Eventually, lesbian feminists’ analysis and organizing strengthened the movement, even as tensions persisted.

Generational and Ideological Conflicts: The film documents splits between liberal feminists focused on legal reform and radical feminists seeking revolutionary transformation, between women prioritizing different issues, and between those with different visions of what liberation should look like. These conflicts, while sometimes painful and divisive, also reflected the movement’s diversity and vitality.

Archival Footage and Visual Power

Dore’s masterful use of archival materials brings this history to vivid life. The documentary features:

• Footage of protests, marches, and demonstrations showing the energy, creativity, and determination of activists
• Clips from television news programs revealing how mainstream media trivialized, mocked, and misrepresented the movement
• Home movies and photographs capturing intimate moments of organizing, community-building, and friendship
• Feminist films and cultural productions showing how activists created their own media and representations
• Press clippings, manifestos, and publications documenting the ideas and debates that shaped the movement

This rich visual archive, much of it rarely seen, provides concrete evidence of a movement that transformed American society in just a few years.

Contemporary Interviews and Reflection

The documentary interweaves archival materials with contemporary interviews with movement veterans. These women, now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, reflect on their experiences with insight, humor, and sometimes regret. They discuss:

• What motivated them to become activists and how feminism changed their lives
• The excitement and solidarity of building a movement with other women
• The personal costslost jobs, broken relationships, family estrangement
• Their proudest achievements and their greatest disappointments
• How they see the movement’s legacy and what work remains

These reflections provide historical perspective and connect past struggles to present concerns, demonstrating how the gains won by second-wave feminists created possibilities for subsequent generations while also revealing persistent inequalities.

Impact on Law and Policy

The documentary documents the movement’s remarkable legislative and legal successes:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964) prohibiting sex discrimination in employment
• Title IX (1972) prohibiting sex discrimination in education
• The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974) prohibiting credit discrimination based on sex or marital status
• Roe v. Wade (1973) establishing constitutional right to abortion
• State laws criminalizing marital rape and domestic violence
• Establishment of rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and women’s health clinics

By showing the activism that drove these changes, the film demonstrates that progress doesn’t happen automatically but requires sustained organizing, pressure, and sacrifice.

Cultural Transformation

Beyond legal changes, “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” illustrates how feminism fundamentally altered American culture:

• Challenging beauty standards and expectations about women’s appearance and behavior
• Transforming language (Ms., sexual harassment, domestic violence)
• Changing family structures and gender roles in households
• Opening professions and educational opportunities previously closed to women
• Creating spaces and institutions by and for women
• Shifting public discourse about gender, sexuality, and power

The film shows how ideas once considered radical became mainstream, even as backlash and resistance persisted.

Legacy and Contemporary Relevance

While celebrating achievements, the documentary emphasizes unfinished business. The women interviewed note:

• Persistent wage gaps and workplace discrimination
• Ongoing attacks on reproductive rights
• Endemic sexual violence
• Underrepresentation in political and corporate leadership
• Backlash against feminism and women’s gains
• The need to address intersections of gender with race, class, sexuality, and other identities more effectively

By connecting second-wave struggles to contemporary issues, the film positions feminism not as a completed project but as ongoing work requiring each generation’s commitment and creativity.

Cinematic Achievement and Educational Value

As a documentary, “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” succeeds brilliantly in making history accessible and engaging. Dore’s direction keeps the narrative moving while respecting complexity, the editing skillfully weaves together multiple storylines and perspectives, and the archival research uncovers materials that bring this history to vivid life.

The film serves as essential viewing for anyone seeking to understand:

• The origins of contemporary feminism
• How social movements mobilize and achieve change
• The relationship between personal experience and political activism
• The importance of intersectional analysis
• The ongoing struggle for gender equality

Conclusion: Beauty in Anger, Power in Solidarity

The documentary’s title comes from a common dismissive response to women’s angersuggesting that women are most attractive when displaying emotion, even rage. By reclaiming this phrase, Dore and the feminists featured in her film assert that anger at injustice is not only justified but necessary, that it can be transformative and even beautiful when channeled into collective action for change.

“She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” reminds us that the rights and opportunities women enjoy today were not gifts but were fought for by courageous activists who risked ridicule, ostracism, job loss, and sometimes physical harm. Their stories inspire continued commitment to feminist principles and demonstrate that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary change when they organize together with vision, determination, and solidarity.

The documentary’s lasting value lies in recovering voices and stories that might otherwise be forgotten, providing historical grounding for contemporary feminist work, and demonstrating that social transformation is possible when people collectively demand it. For anyone seeking to understand American feminism’s history, this film is essential viewinga testament to what has been achieved and a reminder of how much work remains.