Far too often, actresses are remembered for their glamour and the roles they played, but overlooked for the contributions they made in the often oppressive industry that employed them and in “real” life. This presentation is about how four women—Mary Pickford, Mae West, Bette Davis and Jane Fonda—pushed the norms and made a difference, often risking their careers and livelihoods.

Turning the tables on how Hollywood studios cast and distributed movies, Mary Pickford was a co-founder of United Artists. Mae West challenged bigotry and narrow-minded conventional morality at a time when very few, especially women, would dare. At the height of her career, Bette had the “audacity” to defy the powerful Jack Warner over artistic integrity. And Jane Fonda risked throwing it all away to make a defiant stand against the Vietnam War and to this day, continues to fight for climate change and women’s rights.

In this class, we will meet these brave women and shed a light on their intelligence and courage as we discover why they are worthy of attention beyond their contributions to American cinema.

This course will combine lecture with class discussions.

“No Known Restrictions: Mary Pickford on Beach with Camera, ca. 1916 (LOC)” by pingnews.com is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

“Mae West” by classic film scans is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“BetteDavis1935” by Studio Publicity is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

“Jane Fonda en Pham Thi Minh” by Bert Verhoeff for Anefo is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.