Women Today: Ephron Reflects

"Many men learned to clear the table, and hope that people will get off their backs," Nora Ephron said last night in her "Reflections on Women Today," a talk sponsored by Schlesinger Library.

Ephron, a columnist for "Esquire" and author of several books of essays about the media, addressed her remarks on the current state of the women's movement to a crowd of about 300 in Agassiz Theater.

Ephron said, "It all looked easier than it turned out to be. To change fundamentally is much harder than just getting a divorce or a job," she said.

"The greatest achievement of the movement is that women found that they were able to trust and love each other, but if that is based on a contempt for men, I don't think we have moved forward," she said.

Ephron observed that the women's movement has deeply affected women in college today. "Women in my class had marriage as a goal, now college women are career oriented. The right job is a better obsession than the right man," she said.

The movement has produced some bad side effects, however, Ephron said. "Lines like 'I can't get a better job, because men run everything,' are part of the political rhetoric which the movement has provided to give women an excuse to stay put," she added