Gloria Steinem: Living without A Net...

I have been so sad about the passing of Gloria Steinem.  And at the very same time, I know that her life and how she chose to live it made my life possible.  The life I have and have enjoyed is all because of her and women like her.  

What I have mostly been thinking about is that Gloria did all she did without a safety net.  Today we have the Me Too Movement and significantly raised consciousness.  She did not have the benefit of any of that.  First wave feminism absolutely sowed the seeds for second wave feminism but let’s not mistake that ground for being hospitable.  The women’s rights fields sat fallow for a long time in between.  And this is NOT to say that women were not in those fields tilling and raking and mucking about.  They were.  Women like Gloria.  Women who cared more about the future than they did their own present.  Women who wanted things to change but knew that real, lasting change would come slowly over time and would likely not really benefit them all that much in their own time of need.

We stand on the shoulders of women like her today.  Without women like her none of us would have the lives we do today, the freedoms we do and the ability to control, at least to some degree, how our bodies and minds are used.

Gloria in all her glory brought us:  (results are from Claude)

Journalism & Media

Co-founded Ms. magazine in 1972, one of the first mainstream publications to be created, run, and controlled by women, covering topics like domestic violence, reproductive rights, and workplace discrimination that other outlets ignored.

Wrote influential undercover journalism, including her 1963 exposé "A Bunny's Tale," in which she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny to reveal poor working conditions for women in that industry.

Activism & Organizing

Co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus (1971) to recruit and support women running for political office.

Co-founded the Women's Media Center (2005) to advance women's visibility and leadership in media.

Was a key organizer and speaker in the women's liberation movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, traveling extensively to give speeches on gender equality.

Advocacy

Advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and reproductive rights, including access to legal abortion.

Worked on issues of intersectionality early on, partnering with Black feminist leaders like Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Florynce Kennedy, and speaking out against the idea that feminism was only relevant to white, middle-class women.

Continued activism into her later decades, including work on global women's rights issues and LGBTQ+ rights.

Public Influence

Became one of the most recognizable public faces of American feminism, helping to popularize and mainstream feminist ideas through her writing, speeches, and media appearances.

Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 for her contributions to civil rights and women's equality.

And she did all of the above without a safety net.  None of the above was accomplished without a fight, or social media or a broad base of support.  The thing about men always having the power was that they didn’t really want to give any of it up...so the fight was hard won and long fought at every single turn.  For us to be “equal” in any way, shape or form, took many hits and small victories that created a tide that eventually altered women’s landscape in this world.  And is still delivering us to distant shores we have only dreamed about.

I feel a debt of obligation to Gloria and all the women from her generation.  They took on the patriarchy and never gave up.  In the face of hate, threats, misunderstanding and violence, she persisted.  And dedicated her life to improving women’s lives in just about every single aspect that matters.

That I can own my own home without a man’s signature is something she helped to bring into being.  The fact that I can get birth control (I mean, if I still needed it...) is something she fought for all of us.  Exposing the sexual exploitation and financial abuse of women in many areas of our society.  I get to have the life I have today because of Gloria and other women who dared to believe that women were entitled to equal pay, equal rights and to not be held hostage by our gender.  To raise consciousness so that we had a platform to address sexual abuse and exploitation in business and industry.

I am sad for her passing, but I am immensely grateful for her life.  Her legacy will live on because it is woven into the fabric of our lives as women.  She carried a torch across a high wire without a societal safety net and in so doing she rained down on all of us tiny embers that found homes in torches we didn’t even know we carried.  And she lit a fire in an ever growing movement uplifting and giving voice to the radical belief that women are full, complete human beings — not supporting characters in someone else's story — and the ongoing work to build a world where that's just...obviously true. No asterisks, no exceptions, no "but what about."

We all walk our own high wires in this life.  We all take our risks and do our own versions of the tightrope walk, but thanks to women like Gloria Steinem, we have a net.  An ever growing net of women, and some men, who continue to foster and grow this idea that women do not have to ask for permission.  We do not need it because it is our birthright to be here, to live our lives as free as any man.  May we all continue Gloria’s mission...in her honor and forever in her debt.

Again, still...