Last night I watched “Gloria: In Her Own Words” on HBO, an engrossing documentary about the woman who helped spearhead the women’s movement of the late ’60s and ’70s, the one and only Gloria Steinem. It was informative and inspiring, about a woman born at a time when women had limited rights and Steinem’s upward battle to improve her every women’s lives. She believed that talking wasn’t enough and that women had to take the streets to demand change.
And indeed she did.
Early on in the hour-long portrait, we learned that she never wanted to cover fashion, dates and domestics, she wanted to cover real stories about real women. We learn about an experience with a Playboy club where, in 1963, she did an undercover stint dressed as one of Hugh Hefner’s famed bunnies. The result was an article exposing the clubs’ conditions. Soon after, she covered a hearing about abortion where women were telling the committee about their agonizing abortion experiences. She realized that one in three women needed an abortion and could not understand why abortions were secret, illegal, and dangerous. By the 1970s, she had become the voice of the women’s rights movement and founded Ms. Magazine to give women a platform to speak out.
The documentary also taught me a lot about her and her relationships with fellow feminists, like Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug. I never knew that she had a conflict with Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique. Steinem said of Friedan, “She considered herself the owner of the movement.” Steinem did not think there was only one.
She is a champion. She has helped push human rights on so many levels. She attended the National Women’s Conference in 1977 which led to the passing of abortion and lesbian rights — along with support for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Steinem during the 70-minute long documentary:
“I began to understand that my experience was a universal female experience.”
“We were accused in the press of having penus envy.”
“A woman who inspires to something is called a bitch.”
“Once we started to change the mainstream of the culture, we became a threat.”
“No one hands you equality. You have to take it.”
“We are the women that our parents warned us about, and we are proud.”
“I just never felt compelled to have children & I don’t have any regrets.”
“Feminism shouldn’t need a name and one day it won’t.”
We owe so much to Gloria Steinem. Today female reporters do cover hard stories. Today it’s okay for women not to get married or have children (Steinem decided to never get married early on but did decide to get married at age 66. Unfortunately, her husband passed away a few years later.) It’s okay for a woman to have an abortion (Steinem had an abortion before there was as a women’s movement and never told anyone.) It’s okay for a woman with kids to work outside the home. It’s okay for a woman to be in a relationship with another woman. It’s okay for a woman to have a child on her own. Look how far we’ve come.
I want my daughter to learn about her and take a cue from the life she has led. She will grow up knowing that the world is her oyster, and I truly believe that Gloria Steinem is partly responsible for that.
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Great insight into an inspiring woman! I want to make a point to teach my daughter about her as well.
I am 57 and have and am appalled at the change in behavior of young women. Now, girls, beginning in middle school (or before) act and are proud of being whores. They “service” boys with no thought of reciprocity. THAT’s where feminism got us. Unbelievable that young adults think this is anything but abusive social interaction. The feminism movement -FAIL, BIG TIME!!!
That’s a tough statement. First of all, you’re pigeon holing all young women as one type of person. We can still teach young women and give them a chance to make great strides in our history. Feminism is not dead. We make up 51% of the world’s population and have the capability to do so much.