After decades of political and social progress, women's rights are now the subject of renewed

political debate and policy change amid a seemingly broader backlash against the goals of

modern feminism. Ali Rogan spoke with Atlantic staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist

Sophie Gilbert about her new book, Girl on Girl, which argues that pop culture of the

90s and early 2000s may have set back a generation of women.

So Sophie, obviously these days women's rights are a huge part of the political conversation

in the United States. So with everything that's going on right now,

why look back at this period in the recent history of pop culture?

I think because to me it felt like it might all be connected, particularly after Roevy Wade was overturned.

I just felt like I couldn't understand what had happened,

certainly to feminism, but also to women in culture during my lifetime. And there were people

who were pulsing the politics at that moment, but it felt like it might make sense to me,

as a critic, to go back and look at the culture of the moment that shaped my generation

and also the generation that came after.

And the term feminism, of course, through the decades has meant different things to different people. But I'd like you to tell us about how the word and the idea of feminism evolved

during this particular period. I've always understood feminism personally just to mean, do you believe that women are equal

human beings?

And do you believe that they should have equal rights in society under the law?

And that seems kind of simple to me.

But I've understood through my research, it's not, you know, it's always been so simple.

One of the questions I wanted to understand in my book was how, I think music as a useful example, how in the music of the 1990s,

we went from this really kind of ferocious activist moment of the early 90s. So many women in

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