On Women’s Day this week, I went through my notes, taken when listening to Gloria Steinem eight years ago. My goodness, she is timeless. But what good are these notes if I don’t read them over and over again, but more so, if I don’t share these gems. So, here you go:
On being together: You cannot raise a child on a computer screen.
She was well ahead of her time to have parsed this advice way back in 2016.
It took 100 years to get legal identity; it took another 100 years to get equality.
Think about that! And we are still not there.
Best economic stimulus: Equal pay for women of all races.
Where and on which shelf is the ERA buried?
Be part of a circle, not a pyramid.
That is Sisterhood.
We are linked, not ranked.
No woman is an island.
First, a declaration of independence; then a declaration of interdependency. (Bella Abzug)
It’s a process.
The single biggest determinant of whether a country is violent within itself or is willing to use military violence against another country is not poverty, religion, or degree of democracy. It’s violence against females.
OMG! Why is no one talking about it? I mean, Gloria is, but “World, Are You Listening!”
In the police force, 40% of the families of police officers have had incidents of domestic violence.
40%!
Yet, there is no training program that takes that into consideration. Behavior associated with violence against women should be applied to ferret out police officers most likely to use violence.
Are we ready to confront this?
If we don’t have democracy at home, we cannot have democracy outside the home. A tree does not grow from top down.
Husband and wife are in a partnership, not rank-ordered.
Raise your sons more like your daughters.
The voting booth is where the least powerful and the most powerful are equal.
Sadly, it works only when there is equal opportunity to get inside the voting booth.
It’s not about women getting power; it’s about making life better for all women.
Amen!
From the ultra-right: feminism is a Jewish plot to destroy Christian families.
When Pakistan passed a women’s protection bill that criminalizes domestic violence, the extremist clergy were saying ‘it will destroy families.’
The years after mid-fifties and beyond are the best. The gender role is over, and you are free. The biggest indicator of who we are after 55 is what we were at age 9.
I can attest to that.
But I can’t remember what I was like at 9; can you?
Do not listen to me; listen to yourself. If it walks like a duck, but you think it’s a pig; it’s a pig.
And I think Gloria is the best.
