Gloria Steinem‘s 90th birthday is as good a time as any to look back on her trailblazing career and activism. We are, rather fittingly, closing out Women’s Month by celebrating a woman who became synonymous with feminism thanks to her writing and activism.
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‘My Life on the Road’ by Gloria Steinem
In 2015, Steinem told the story of how she came to be the history-making woman she is in her memoir My Life on the Road. The book tracks Steinem’s life as a self-described “wandering organizer,” from her childhood as the daughter of a traveling salesman to her time keeping up with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy on their campaigns and then on to her own life on the road for speaking engagements and more.
The book has plenty of juicy moments too. She is candid about her rift with second-wave feminist pioneer Betty Friedan. She recalls writers Saul Bellow and Gay Talese dismissing her as “a pretty girl who comes to New York and pretends to be a writer” during a shared cab ride.
She is also honest about her controversial role in the 2008 Democratic primary when she publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. In the book, Steinem agrees that the election was falsely characterized by the media as a fight over race and gender, a charge she was accused of contributing. Her support for Clinton drew criticism from her fellow feminists who accused her of creating a hierarchy of oppressions. In her memoir she writes that while it wasn’t her intention, it was “definitely my fault.”
As for her choice to support Clinton, she writes that she made a list of pros and cons on a yellow legal pad, but in the end, it came down to personal connections: “If I were Obama, I would not feel personally betrayed by the lack of support from someone like me, a new ally. If I were Hillary Clinton, I might feel betrayed by a longtime supporter who left me for a new face.”
As for her personal life, Steinem is private but does give readers a rare look into her life. Her husband, David Bale to whom she was married from 2000 until his 2003 death, gets no mention in the memoir but Steinem does share a few stories about men she dated. What readers can likely glean from the book is that Steinem’s most fulfilling relationships have been her friendships with women. Her friendship with the Native American feminist activist Wilma Mankiller gets several pages as do her ties to other activists she has met along the way.
As Steinem marks her 90th birthday, her memoir is a heartwarming reminder of what it means to be the face of a movement that has been loved and loathed by the general public at various times, and of the importance of never being stagnant and always moving forward.
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