Gloria Steinem Got Married
October 17, 2008 by Tracee Sioux
Filed under Parenting
Pretend you see a photo of Gloria Steinem here. She’s lovely.
Did you see Gloria Steinem on Oprah? Oprah asked her why she got married in her mid-60s after she had been famously quoted as saying, “Marriage is death.”
‘Well, you know, … I’ve fought for 30 years to make marriage laws equal, so why not?’” the feminist icon said.
Mommy cried today, my daughter told my husband.
I saw Gloria Steinem on Oprah, I explained.
Truly, I was hoping to pass on to my daughter the profound gratitude I feel toward this woman for standing up to the status quo and insisting on women’s political, legal and economic equality.
My daughter has grown up in a world in which her equality is a given. Gloria held no magic for her.
We’ve lately, with Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, have confronted our mother issues, our mommy wars, our equality.
I hope it’s clear to someone other than myself that now, our issues may just be our own. In Gloria’s day, it was the men holding us back.
But, because she spend 35 years changing their minds, I find the mommy wars are among . . . the women. Maybe a year ago I realized it was really an internal war – me against myself and the mother voice in my head and my fear of judgement from other women.
Then Sarah Palin made me realize that half of women judge me viciously no matter what I do so I should just do what I want as Gloria suggests.
There’s been lot’s of speculation about why John McCain would choose a woman with so little experience over someone like Kay Baily Hutchinson, the polling showed our own issues with our mothers highly influenced the women’s vote. It’s so complicated who dares hang an election on that?
In the workplace, it seems women are as many women wanting to hold women’s ambitions back as their are men. Certainly, we don’t create an emotional environment for each other where ambition and success are talked about or rewarded.
When asked whether young women today are ungrateful, naive, or entitled or wrong to take their equality for granted Gloria said No. “It’s part of the reason that women do get more activist, more radical, you might say, with age because we have to experience what the unfairnesses are in the workplace and who takes care of kids and who doesn’t,” she says.
The bar has been raised. Marriage laws are equal enough for Gloria to participate in. But, there are other frontiers – family medical leave act for instance. Women only get radial and active once they experience being 8 months pregnant and are then told: We’re sorry, we don’t offer 12 weeks maternity leave because we don’t have to.
Then, BAM – a Feminist is Born and Gloria Steinem becomes your personal hero.
This is a Blogtoberfest Post. I’m giving something away. If you leave a comment guessing what it is you’ll be entered to win.
Image Source: Oprah.com
This summer my 8 year old daughter and I were fortunate to see Nelson Mandela at our hotel. She had no idea who he was, naturally, but I took great pains to tell her everything I knew about him. It’s a start. I think young women have little appreciation for Gloria Steinem because no one has taught them about her. Martin Luther King is taught in the elementary schools, so our kids have some idea of who he was and what he represents; but nobody is teaching women’s issues. We have to do it ourselves, and maybe it’s time to push for more recognition in the curricula.
I agree that we need to teach women’s rights in school. It needs to be a part of history that our daughters learn.
I’ll take a shot. It’s a beautiful t-shirt?
I don’t have any idea what it might be but I am sure it is fabulous!!!
I think it is a tshirt with a great saying on it. Like I heart Gloria LOL.
Is it a tote bag?
That’s a fantastic point Feefifoto – why don’t they give as much/or any coverage to Gloria Steinem as they give to Christopher Columbus or Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln?
Definitely something to push for in education.
I am not really sure about the prize but I wanted to thank you for an insightful post.
I’m going to guess either a T-shirt or tote bag with some clever comment in the “I am woman, hear me roar” genre. Thanks!
I’m going to guess… well, something in line with feminist values, anyway.
I’m glad that Gloria Steinem wouldn’t consider me ungrateful for taking my equality for granted.
I agree we need to teach more about womens rights movement.
I think the prize is a t-shirt with the saying IF GLORIA CAN DO IT — SO CAN I.
maybe it’s a book
I totally agree with the statement about us fighting other women more than men..I’m soooo sick of it. WE’re literally damned if we do, and damned if we don’t. I mean didn’t Gloria do all that struggling so that we might get to choose what kind of like we deem best for us?