Book Reviews

Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U. S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment

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Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U. S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment

I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve never listened to the Ordinary Equality podcast, so I started off without much knowledge as to what to expect from this book or the author. Fortunately, the book does what it says in its title, and the author does it well.

Kelly takes the reader through the history of the 19th Amendment and the ERA, using profiles of individual activists to showcase different eras in history. This approach not only makes these important trailblazers feel more real, it also puts the reader in the moment – the 1920s can feel far away, but in reality it really was only 100 years ago, and those fighting for equal rights then still face the same roadblocks we do today.

The profiles themselves are great – I admit I have a limited knowledge of the movement, but I still found familiar faces and new-to-me figures alike. There are also mini-profiles at the end of each chapter that feature activists mentioned in the chapter for a little more information that would otherwise be tangential to the topic at hand; I’m very glad the author included these, because they help provide additional context to what else was happening at the time.

I also want to say that I am incredibly grateful that Kelly was respectful of and included the queer individuals who played important roles in the movement as well. I’ve learned to be wary of things proclaiming to be feminist that aren’t actually inter-sectional, so I was glad to see that this book actually takes that to heart.

I will admit I found some of the extra commentary to be a little over the top – I think the reader can grasp irony without the narrator having to stop to call it out with a witticism. It isn’t saturated with these, but it’s enough that I was rolling my eyes at them a few times. I get that Kelly’s voice is trying to shine through in these parts, but I feel these are best left for the introduction and conclusion rather than the activist profiles themselves.

All in all, this book does what it says in its title. It provides a historical look at the history of the movement and provides a call to action at the end for those who want to do more – and you likely will by the time you finish the book. I hope the author pursues other work, on this topic or on others, as I will definitely be interested in reading whatever Kelly writes next.