Liberation: Women Exploring the 1970s Sexual Revolution

Dec 9, 2025 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Two Sues on the Aisle, Susie Rosenbluth and Sue Weston

Fifty-five years after the National Organization for Women planned its 1970 Women’s Strike for Equality and scores of women nationwide formed liberation groups in which consciousness raising shifted to political coordinating, a new play, Liberation, addresses how—and if—things went wrong. It’s an issue that affects the Jewish community, including the Orthodox contingent, too. An institution such as Operation Sarah for those suffering from domestic abuse would probably never have seen the light of day were it not for the issues raised by “Women’s Lib.” Nor would there have been a push for prenuptial agreements to preempt the tragedy of agunot, Jewish women already separated from husbands who refuse to grant them a Jewish writ of divorce, without which the ex-wives cannot halachically remarry. Nevertheless, many traditional Jews would still reject the means used by the women back then—and certainly the way they are portrayed in this production.

Playwright Bess Wohl tackles the subject by presenting a young journalist (the brilliant, vulnerable, and eminently likeable Susannah Flood) who creeps back into the memory of her recently deceased—and greatly mourned—mother, Lizzie (also portrayed by Ms. Flood), to figure out what made a bunch of fledgling feminists meeting in the basement gym of an Ohio recreational center tick.

Ms. Flood is clearly a stand-in for Ms. Wohl, whose mother was a 1970s activist as well as a staffer at Ms.magazine. In the play, as might well have happened in real life, Lizzie, then a young, single woman, instigates the group’s first meeting by putting up posters, asking women to come.

And five more women show up— Dora (Audrey Corsa), a receptionist who initially shows up to the meeting by mistake (she thought it was a knitting circle) but soon reveals her ambitious nature and unhesitating use of sex appeal to advance her position at work; Isidora (Irene Sofia Lucio), a fiery Italian immigrant and aspiring photographer trapped in a hate-filled green-card marriage; and Margie (Betsy Aidem) an older housewife stuck in an unfulfilling marriage with her newly retired husband. The final two women—Susan (Adina Verson), an off-beat, culturally Jewish, Marxist writer who lives in her car with her pet bird; and Celeste (Kristolyn Lloyd), a Black feminist who returned to Ohio from New York to care for her dying mother—eventually become a couple, a union Ms. Wohl seems to celebrate more joyously than the traditional kind between a man and a woman.

Achieving Sisterhood

As a group, the half-dozen CR (consciousness-raising) participants try their darndest to articulate what was considered every woman’s struggle: the desire to have it all, a career, and a family with self-determination. The play and these women harness the activism familiar to children of the ’60s, including the music and the everything-goes atmosphere. Their decision to meet in the nude while discussing what they like and hate about their bodies is believable and, perhaps unintentionally, hilarious. The 1970s, after all, were a time for the sexual revolution and the fight for civil rights.

Perhaps the most moving aspect of the play is the closeness achieved by these women. Call it sisterhood; call it friendship. Bonds between women who serve each other as confidantes, sounding boards, advisors, and mentors are nothing new. It’s just that each generation thinks it has invented the wheel.

Moving fluidly between the past and present, Liberation explores how these women’s lives evolved. As part of her investigation, the young journalist discovers they continued to meet weekly even after her mother, Lizzie, the organizer, “betrays” them—by marrying a man, having children, and following her husband to New York, where his professional prospects were greatly improved. Ironically, Lizzie also benefitted, not only from her husband’s much-improved salary but also from the plethora of interesting positions open to her in New York’s publishing world. She became a wealthy attorney’s well-heeled suburban wife and the doting mother of their children.

One of the Two Sues on the Aisle silently dared Ms. Wohl to call Lizzie a failure while extolling the wonders of Lesbian marriage.

Different Paths

While Liberation does not pretend to represent the experiences of all women who sought to explore its issues, the play highlights the need for all people to have community, connection, and communication. No one should be forced to live in a suffocating or abusive relationship. The stereotypical “wife,” represented by Margie, who automatically, stoically, and resentfully takes on sole responsibility for raising the children and caring for the home while remaining fully dependent on her husband, is probably a relic—but no one should naysay the many women, like Lizzie, who grasp that role because they choose and relish it. The real message of Liberation should be that all people—men and women—have the right to search for acceptance, accomplishment, and a sense of purpose.

Hopefully, Ms. Wohl, like the rest of us, would acknowledge that women, at home and in the workplace, have come a long way since the 1970s. She makes clear she is convinced there is still a long way to go.

It’s not clear how the production itself views its nude scene. This was the first show we ever attended for which, before entering, the audience was required not only to power down their phones but to allow them to be locked in special pouches provided by the theater for the entire performance. We suspected the intent was to protect the performers by eliminating any temptation to photograph them—especially during the nude scene. The absence of phones and the disconnect from the internet forced audience members to talk to one another, which, while initially annoying, became liberating.

Superb Writing, Winning Performances

Both Sues agreed Ms. Wohl’s writing is witty, pointed, and direct, but one of us felt she too often misses the mark, making generalizations about gender differences that often don’t exist and expecting marital changes without real conversations about what is best for the family unit as a whole. Once the commitment has been made to face life together, issues such as parenting and finding a place in the world should no longer be individual decisions. After goals are mutually defined, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

One of the Sues found the production “riveting” with “dialogue that draws the audience into the conversation.” Both of us agreed the performers were extraordinary and Ms. Flood’s need to understand her mother’s life was “poignant and real.”

While there were plenty of men in the audience, Liberation is a play for women by a woman who created a plausible story for her mother, the radical-woman activist-turned suburban-lawyer’s wife—a drama about the American dream, sprinkled with humor, candor, and reality.

In the end, Liberation leaves many questions not only unanswered but often unasked. After trying so hard to fill in the articulated conversations, Lizzie’s daughter hears her mother exclaim, “You got it all wrong.” The phantom memories the daughter thought she had were undefined because the stories were never shared.

It’s safe to say the play and the performances have probably prompted many deep discussions exploring the nature of the women’s movement, changes in society, and the importance of asking the right questions, especially when there are no simple answers.