Decorated award-winning feminist icon Gloria Steinem hasn't released a book in over 20 years, but her new memoir Gloria Steinem: My Life on the Road is literally worth every second of the wait. The 81-year-old Women's Action Alliance founder is telling her own story from a uniquely different perspective—the driver's seat.
"I started the book at Hedgebrook—a writer's retreat on Whidbey Island near Seattle," she said. "Because I was on the road all the time, it meant that I worked on this book a month every summer and then didn't work on it for 11 months. It is no doubt a different book than it would have been when I started it, but the general scope of the book was something I have always wanted to do—both because it's my life on the road and because I want to encourage the idea that on the road organizers even though we have the Internet and all the electronics in the world. Something happens when we're in a room together, as you know, that doesn't happen when you're on a screen or on a page."
Steinem's rapport with the open air extends further than an arm's reach.
"In a way, I suppose the road is to me what meditation is to sensible people," Steinem said. "It forces me to live in the present since I otherwise live totally in the future at this point. It's so immediate and spontaneous—and unexpected."
The human interaction Steinem said she felt on the road was also unexpected.
"Given the general tenure of the press, which is to divide the country into two—into democrat or republican, right or left, for or against each issue—I'm always surprised, first of all, at how diverse views are, and secondly, how progressive they are, in fact," she said. "There's not just two views, there's six or 12, but for the most part, people are quite angered and alarmed about the division of wealth or about putting more people in prison than in any other country—or about state legislatures opposing abortion because the right wing win in Washington so now they're trying to win in state legislatures."
This broad landscape has given Steinem pause.
"I feel much better about the country from the bottom up than from the top down," she said. "Since we read about it from the top down, it's always something of a surprise when you wander around and just talk to people."
She said that one case in point involves Donald Trump and what she stated is his obvious disconnect with Middle America.
"Listen, as someone in New York who's been forced to watch Trump all these years, he is his own phenomenon," she said. "As we say in New York, he was born on first base and thinks he hit a home run. His father was enormously rich and successful. He himself has gone bankrupt four times. His name on buildings—he just leases his name. He doesn't actually build the buildings outside of New York. It's possible that people outside of New York are taking him way more seriously than he deserves."
Regarding the presidential race in 2016, Steinem sees a shoe-in.
"Hillary [Clinton] has more multiracial support than the other candidates," she said. "There's clearly nobody else in the race that has her experience, understanding or humanity. I think this time she could win. I did not think so in 2008—I thought it was too soon for a woman to win. Also, because she and Obama were identical on issues, and because Obama also represented an important first—it wasn't as dire by any means—but now it is dire."
Steinem further emphasized, "For the first year, people would say to me, 'Are you supporting Hillary or Obama?' and I would say, 'Yes.' I ultimately endorsed Hillary because she had way more experience—especially with the ultra-right wing—so I thought we could first have eight years of Hillary and then eight years of Obama, but I would be completely happy with eight years of Obama and then eight years of Hillary."
Women's reproductive rights are once again at the forefront of presidential debates as the nation gears up for 2016. Steinem recalled the "pink flurry" that has been going on for generations.
"It [the fight over women's uteruses] will eventually come to an end," Steinem said. "It has been recognized for most of human history that women control their own bodies and decided whether and when to have children. Patriarchy, racism and all the hierarchical bullshit has been around for a long time and it's going to take a long time to uproot. Reproductive issues are at the heart of it. Reproduction is way more important than production—it should be the beginning of every economics course. You have to control reproduction in order to have soldiers and workers and so forth and to not force women to have children they don't want."
Steinem helped found the National Women's Political Caucus, a group that continues to work to advance the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed office at a national and state level. She also co-founded the Women's Media Center in 2004.
"Incidentally, given the recent visit of the Pope, it's interesting that the Vatican approved of and even regulated abortion until the mid-1800s," she explained. "It only changed because Napoleon III made a deal with Pro Pius IX because Napoleon wanted more population growth and Pro Puis IX wanted the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, plus all the teaching positions in the French schools. It was a political deal and now it's treated as if it were always about morals. It's always been about power and about politics—and it still is—look where we are now in this country.
"We are majority non-European-American white country. The right wing, which bases its authority in sex and race, are in a panic because they see that this is happening. The first generation of a majority of babies of color has already been born. So they are against abortion, against contraception, against sex education in the schools, and against immigration because as the more honest of these groups—the Quiverfull movement—the white race is committing suicide, they say."
Steinem has a different viewpoint.
"It seems to me to be very good that we're going to be a more diverse country—we'll understand the rest of the world better, but they have exactly the opposite view," she said. "They are in a deep struggle against abortion, sex education—everything we need to have reproductive freedom. Once we understand it's fundamental to everything else, I think we're less surprised that it continues."
After 30 years on the road, it must be frustrating.
"It is frustrating, but I am no longer saying, 'I can't believe we're fighting this battle' because it's a basic battle," she said. "Once women seize control of the means of reproduction…it even sounds radical, doesn't it? Then in the long-term it's no longer possible to control the number of workers and citizens, nor is it possible to keep races separate—or castes as in India or classes—you don't control them."
Steinem told us what she anticipates her legacy might contain.
"I just hope I have said something or lived in a way that is useful," she said. "When I was thirtysomething, I wouldn't have believed that you and I would be talking about the same things that I am when I'm eightysomething. This country doesn't quite understand that you stay the same person—more or less. Not exactly the same, it's kind of like Russian dolls…our child self is there, and then our 20s self and our 30s self."
If you ask Steinem, life actually begins at 60.
"I would not have believed that life after, say, 60 … I mean, 60 really began a great period because you are past the gendered part, or the part in which they try to make us be gendered from teenage to fiftysomething," she said. "In the same way that you, too, had the experience of being more free when you were seven or eight or nine and climbing trees saying, 'I know what I want.' Then adolescence descended upon us and we were pushed by society to behave in certain ways because of reproduction and because society is trying to get you to play a particular role in that period of time. But after 60, you're free again. It's like you're nine or 10 again—only now you have your own apartment. It's great. I would like people to know that."
Steinem will appear with Roxane Gay at an event hosted by Chicago's Women & Children First on Thursday, Oct. 29, at The People's Church, 941 W. Lawrence Ave. Tickets are officially sold out for this event.
For more information about Gloria Steinem, visit www.gloriasteinem.com .
