GLORIA STEINEM'S PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

"What my male colleagues meant by revolution was taking over the army and the radio stations. ...That’s very small potatoes. What we mean by revolution is changing much more than that.... It means changing the way we think, the way we relate to each other." - Gloria Steinem, in Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times.

Over decades few women or men, for that matter, have the fortitude, brains, wit, presence, and ability to continue the fight for a cause, and not be replaced in their role of leadership.

Read Steinem's brief oral biography, Particular Passions: Gloria Steinem, first published 30 years ago and now e-published for all platforms.

It is thrilling to read how much Gloria, with her legions of colleagues and followers has accomplished, and how far our society has come.

Available on Amazon and Apple  --  At $0.99, a bargain.

A PROUD ALLIANCE: RIVALS HILLARY AND BARACK

"All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion, which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world." — Benjamin Franklin.

Obama turned to his fiercest rival in an all out war for the presidency, and made her, Hillary Clinton, the most valued and visible member of his cabinet — Secretary of State. Modeling himself after Lincoln, who cleverly employed his rivals to form his team, Obama gained stature for America and himself through Hillary’s diplomacy, political skill, and relentless hard work and personal support.

One person’s achievement and success, draws upon the collaboration of many. The wise, like Obama and Lincoln draw upon the most qualified.

Hillary’s rise to the top of the political scene and a possible run for the presidency in 2016 is a reflection of the gradual emergence of women “seeping” into the upper echelons of power. Similarly, in the world of big business, Marissa Mayer’s becoming CEO of Yahoo is a giant step forward… for all women.

As Gloria Steinem said in Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times, “It wasn’t until late sixties, early seventies, that real feminist statements began to be made… This last decade (the ‘70’s) is so mind-blowing and exciting and angering, because we have realized we are living in a sexual caste system and it’s unjust…This decade has been about consciousness-raising and building a majority movement …for the basic issues of justice for women."

It is women like Gloria Steinem, collaborating with scores of others, who have finally enabled women to be perceived as equally qualified as men.  Now women are just starting to have the opportunity in shaping the world in which they live, an irony, considering there are more women than men.

Read a brief chapter, Steinem’s oral biography, from Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times, available for $.99. It’s a bargain and great read.

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GERDA LERNER LAUNCHED WOMEN’S STUDIES

“I want women’s history to be legitimate, to be part of every curriculum on every level…..I want people to be able to take Ph.D.’s in the subject and not have to say they are doing something else.” – Gerda Lerner, from the New York Times Obituary, 1/3/13

“In the mid-1960s, armed with a doctorate in history from Columbia University…..Dr. Lerner entered an academic world in which women’s history scarcely existed. “In my courses, the teachers told me about a world in which ostensibly one-half the human race is doing everything significant and the other half doesn’t exist,”

At Sarah Lawrence, where Dr. Lerner began teaching history in 1968, she was the driving force behind what is widely credited as the first graduate program in women’s history in the United States, established in 1972.” - NY Times obituary, Jan 3th, 2013

Today, 2013, there are more than 900 women's/gender/feminist studies programs, departments, and research centers around the world with web sites. Women have reclaimed their rightful place in history, due in part to Gerda Lerner.

For me, there is a personal connection with her. The first program she launched was at Sarah Lawrence, my old alma mater, and later Dr. Lerner used my book, Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times as core reading material in one of her classes.

In a first of its kind, Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times identifies the women who had an historic impact on women’s rights from the 1920s to the late 1970s, from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics, among many other disciplines.

These oral biographies recorded in the 1970s, include Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Julia Child, Billie Jean King, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Diana Vreeland and forty other women. The stories capture an historic period in their own words.

Some women are world renowned, others less so, but all icons in their respective disciplines. The stories are more inspiring today considering the obstacles they overcame.

"A fresh, rich, and absorbing book. An excellent contribution to women’s literature." —Andrea Hindig, ed., A guide to Archives and Manuscript Collections in the United States

Particular Passions and 12 individual chapters available for all e-reading devices. Chapters are $.99 on Amazon and Apple.

They truly inspire.

OPRAH WINFREY - BECOMING WHO YOU WANT TO BE

"We can't become what we need to be by remaining what we are." 

Oprah Winfrey Oprah accomplished in her life, what I suspect we all aspire to, the best at what we do, success in our chosen profession, freedom to make choices, and financial comfort.

Oprah is a media brand, producer, publisher, book critic, actress, international celebrity, philanthropist: a woman… African American, who succeeded in a male dominated field.

How did she succeed at so many things, while others struggle?  It’s often the negative in a person’s life that is the catalyst for an outcome that is positive. Oprah’s dysfunctional family background and abuse, must have made her realize life could be far better.  Only she could make it happen. She lived with her mother in poverty after living with her grandmother until she was six, and then was shipped off to her father.

The stories of the 46 women, in Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times, make you realize background is not a component of success.

One of the pioneering women in Particular Passions, Agnes de Mille, transformed dance with storytelling and ushered musical theatre into its’ golden age.  She had everything, but not the body she needed to be a dancer.  The outcome: finding a way to express herself.

As De Mille said in Particular Passions, “There are very few people in the world who are truly creative.  I wanted to be one of them. ... It takes great energy to do anything creative. ... You have to care so much that you can’t sleep, you can’t eat, you can’t talk to people. It’s just got to be right.  You can’t do it without that passion.”

Pick any one of a dozen chapters, e-published at $.99, and benefit from a lifetime of wisdom revealed in these oral biographies. Amazon  http://amzn.to/UH8KaH , Apple http://bit.ly/S7rMDr , more about the book http://tinyurl.com/bge2lwd

The book was reviewed as "One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction." — K.T. Maclay

Enjoy, be inspired! You wont be disappointed.

MARISSA MAYER - A POWERFUL WOMAN

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill.

Marissa Mayer, a remarkable person - male or female - became president and CEO of Yahoo at the youthful age of 37, ranking 14 on the list of 50 American most powerful Business Women of 2012.

Look at what she has accomplished. Google’s first female engineer as employee number 20, when she joined in 1999. She went on to play a key role during her 13 years with the company, rising from engineer, designer, product manager to become an executive, before taking over the helm as CEO of Yahoo. She broke the glass ceiling… and how! And... she just had a baby.

Marissa Mayer is celebrated on the cover of Fortune, not because she's a business woman who also had a baby, but for her business acumen and success.

We should congratulate her, bask in her success, and hope there are other young women who also have the ability and drive to succeed.

We’ve come a long, long way from what was happening to all women in the 60’s and 70’s. Listen to Betty Friedan:

"The shores are strewn with the casualties of the feminine mystique. They did give up their own education to put their husbands through college, and then, maybe against their own wishes, ten or fifteen years later, they were left in the lurch by divorce. The strongest were able to cope more or less well, but it wasn’t that easy for a woman of forty-five or fifty to move ahead in a profession and make a new life for herself and her children or herself alone." - Betty Friedan in Particular Passions, Wikipedia

Be inspired and read the chapter in Particular Passions on Betty Friedan who helped make it possible for all of us, or check out other of the inspirational stories in the book. Run, with your fingers, don't walk to Amazon: http://amzn.to/UH8KaH or Apple: http://bit.ly/S7rMDr   You wont be disappointed. And chapters are only $.99.

An excerpt from one of the many glowing reviews: "Tantalizing glimpses into the lives of women who have not only made a living at their own “particular passion,” but have become well known, even world renowned,  for doing work they love." —Christian Science Monitor.

Billie Jean King - a 21st Century Icon

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" - Robert Kennedy.

Billie Jean King was a dreamer and put those dreams into action.  Look what she accomplished:  from a tennis player, to a champion, to bringing about women's equality in sport, then bringing about greater equality in the workplace first in America, and along with others around the globe.

Read her story in Particular Passions:  Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times.  This is a story for all people who want to see how dreams can turn into reality.... how you make it happen ...and it isn't magic. This chapter isn't about tennis, or even sports, it's about how people put their dreams into action.

"...you can’t force people. ..You can be persuasive if you explain to people that it is in their self-interest to do something…"  Billie Jean King from Particular Passions.

One reviewer said, "One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction.  —K.T. Maclay

The New Year is fast approaching, be inspired by someone who dared to dream and make that dream come true.

Enjoy this brief and inspirational chapter on your kindle / ipad.

Photo: Lynn Gilbert, Cover: Jackie Merri Meyer