Do They Need To Know?
Because the world for young women today is so different…
A few days ago, I was in a discussion with a friend, also in her 70s. She was upset because she’d spoken to several young women who either didn’t know who Gloria Steinem was or had the most passing notion of the importance of this crusading feminist and journalist. As a result, she had begun seeking reminiscences from women of our generation who had come of age in the late 1960s and early 1970s on the impact that Gloria and MS Magazine had on our lives. And what feminism meant to us in those early days.
I was happy to provide my story of how I’d attended college right before Women’s Studies became commonplace on college campuses. I related how I’d been stymied by a professor at the university I attended who categorically stated to the class that women didn’t possess the capacity to understand philosophy. Sadly, that halted one of my pursuits. Several years later, in my first job at a PBS television affiliate, the boss declared women would never become TV anchors. “You may see one or two nowadays on the air,” he stated, “but it’s just a passing fad.” And those words stopped another.
Hard to believe — but that’s the world we grew up in — having to fight for recognition and for fair treatment. We waged a constant battle against discrimination, ridicule, and scorn from the men in our lives — both professionally and personally.
What made it really difficult is that we had so few mentors. We didn’t know that there were women from the past who’d paved the path before us — female doctors, lawyers, musical composers, distinguished artists, writers, and mathematicians because they were so rarely recognized and documented.
In later years, I filled an entire bookshelf in my home library with the biographies of accomplished women from the past — Margaret Meade, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Hannah Arendt, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Margaret Sanger, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, Emma Goldman — I read about their extraordinary courage and strength and relentless pursuit of equity for women. Having barely heard of any of these women, I was eager to learn about them all. One of my favorite books, at that time, was called Women Who Think and What Became of Them.
When Gloria Steinem came along — she threw open a door— she and her colleagues said this is possible, you can do this, this is worth doing. I didn’t learn about her from a biography on my bookshelf — I read about her in current magazines, newspapers, MS, and on TV — she was alive and active — speaking out, speaking up — she was an avatar.
I’m sure it’s difficult for women today to appreciate how crucial a role Gloria played. And yet, in my view, it isn’t tragic that young women today don’t appreciate her or sometimes don’t even know who she is. As I told my friend, young women today live in a different world. They grow up watching TV anchorwomen and newscasters, going to female doctors and dentists, and reading articles in the Washington Post or New York Times and other prestigious media produced by female foreign correspondents and editorial writers. They know or work with female physicists, chemists, bankers, film directors, lawyers, judges, senators, and congresspeople — leaders and experts in almost any field from agriculture to philosophy. They don’t need a single avatar; they have thousands.
So that begs the question: do young women today really need to hear our stories? Do they need to know of our difficult struggles and painful rebuttals and how we endured discrimination in almost every arena of our lives almost every day? Does it benefit them at all to know that piece of history?
After all, we created the world they live in today. Our struggles are what begat the freedoms and opportunities they enjoy. It seems like we could just sit back, feeling pleased that the condition of women in the US (though not all over the world) is so improved. It still has a long way to go in terms of parity but it’s nowhere near what it used to be.
I’m glad my friend is collecting these stories (no doubt some of you readers have some you could share) of the excitement and encouragement we all felt when we first glimpsed MS Magazine on the newsstand or when we ordered our own subscription (how daring!). Or when we glimpsed a photo of Gloria Steinem in high boots and mini-skirts. Those were turn-around moments in our individual and collective lives that are worth remembering and celebrating.
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