Gloria Steinem
GLORIA STEINEM'S PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Gloria SteinemComment
"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.
GLORIA STEINEM IN HER OWN VOICE: THEN AND NOW
Gloria SteinemCommentGloria Steinem will be celebrated on TV tonight February 2nd, 2013, in a documentary. In Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times, her “voice” was recorded in an oral biography in the late 70’s when the women’s movement was only just becoming a part of the mainstream. Today the book has been e-published for all platforms.
How fortunate that we can hear her tonight, and then compare her “voice” in the brief chapter from 35 years ago to learn about a historical time as it was actually happening.
You wont be disappointed. As one of the many stellar reviews said: "I have never enjoyed an oral history book more than this one." — Sojourner
The unabridged Particular Passions collection, along with twelve of some of its most compelling chapters (featuring the stories of Bella Abzug, Julia Child, Agnes de Mille, Betty Friedan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tatyana Grosman, Grace Murray Hopper, Billie Jean King, Dorothy Canning Miller, Louise Nevelson, Gloria Steinem, and Diana Vreeland) are released for e-readers at Amazon and Apple. The chapter is $0.99.
Enjoy one chapter, two, and I hope you’ll read the book. The women’s stories will amaze and inspire you!
A PROUD ALLIANCE: RIVALS HILLARY AND BARACK
Gloria SteinemComment
"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.
GLORIA STEINEM'S "VOICE" EMPOWERS WOMEN
Gloria SteinemCommentWhen You Educate A Girl You Transform a Nation: A concept hundreds of years in the making.
Women are being transformed from gaining power by having visions and hearing “voices,” to marrying into power, to finally listening to their own inner voices thereby becoming empowered.
In 1412, a young 13-year-old, illiterate peasant girl, “Joan of Arc,” as she became known, heard "voices" which commanded her to aid the Dauphin, Charles and see him crowned as the King of France.
Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Catherine II by Fyodor Rokotov
Three hundred years later “Catherine the Great (1729 -1796), came to power in Russia through her marriage to Peter III, following his assassination. "Under her reign, Russia was revitalized, recognized as one of the great powers of Europe, and often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire." — Wikipedia, summarized.
In 2013, six hundred years after Joan of Arc, women are able to rely on their own inner voice, due to “visionary” women like Gloria Steinem who dedicated themselves to feminism and other movements for social justice.
In Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times, Gloria Steinem said “I think the revolutionary role of a writer is to make language that makes coalition possible, language that makes us see things in a new way.”
The oral biography of Gloria Steinem is available for $.99 on Amazon or Apple.
Particular Passions identifies 46 pioneering women from the 1920s to the late 1970s who helped transform women’s roles in society from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics among many other disciplines.
"Every woman owes it to herself to look up Particular Passions—borrow the volume from your public library. Or, better still, buy it and put it with your favorite novel or poetry collection to sustain you. Every story in the book is an inspiration. This book is a joy and a tonic." — Pioneer Press and Dispatch.
THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
Gloria Steinem1 Comment
"Wouldn’t dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?"
- Carolyn Wells
Christmas is over, joy, stress, preparation and work. Now the leftovers are put away, dishes cleaned, wrapping paper stuffed into a large garbage bag, … without the boxes surreptitiously kept out, so gifts, over which you oohed and aahed, can be exchanged.
Christmas, whether you are Christian or not, is the one holiday during the year that builds to a grand crescendo of expectations, even more than New Year’s Eve. For that occasion fireworks in large cities worldwide are spectacular. Cities are almost macho in their displays, but you might or might not see these spectacular bursts of light and color.
During Christmas though, the world can either be a buyer or a seller, a giver or receiver, and in most instances both: everyone plays a role. Isn’t that the holiday that keeps economies thriving throughout the world. Pundits announce company results at the end of the season as if it was a horse race.
But the letdown is also a time for reflection. We’re not quite ready to make that New Year’s resolution. We certainly can mull it over.
A suggestion: read a chapter from the book, "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times." The stories will inspire anyone - man or woman- to think of what they want to commit to in the new year.
A suggestion: read Gloria Steinem’s brief oral biography. "There aren’t two sides to everything. There are eleven, or a hundred ...and it’s a gross distortion of reality to say...there has to be a winner or a loser. Reality is much more diverse and interesting than that.”
Particular Passions is available at Apple and Amazon.
Select from any of 11 more chapters, $.99 cents each. It won’t break the bank, not even after Christmas, and you’ll enjoy it …the chapter.
As one reviewer said of Particular Passions, "One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction. — K.T. Maclay
Photo: An 80-foot tall Norway spruce was decked out with 30,000 lights in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The Christmas tree-lighting ceremony goes back to 1933. - internet
GLORIA STEINEM - a 21st Century Icon
Gloria SteinemComment"It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein
Today, all our lives have been transformed by a group of women who understood and fought for women’s equality, not only affecting women’s lives, but men’s as well. How can women who make up more than half the population, not be allowed to flourish as individuals, not be equally rewarded for their labor, and not be able to contribute to society. We are all cheated. And as for a relationship between a man and a woman, how can it be truly satisfying if there is no equality.
It takes a special person, one with intelligence to see that life as others accepted it, was deeply flawed, articulate it, create a vision, and have the power to mobilize others to share and accomplish change. That passion translates into leadership.
"There have been significant women in the latest women’s movement but a few stand out. Gloria Steinem is one of them: as a social and political activist, and nationally recognized media spokeswoman for the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. She co-founded Ms. magazine. In 1969, she published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation" which, along with her early support of abortion rights, catapulted her to national fame as a feminist leader. She founded many organizations and projects…. along with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan, in 2005, Steinem co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to strengthen the collective voices of women." - Summary Wikipedia.
Born 1934, she is as passionate today about her vision for women’s rights continuing work as an organizer, campaigning for candidates and reforms, and as an outspoken commentator, writer and lecturer.
In Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times, Steinem said “I think the revolutionary role of a writer is to make language that makes coalition possible, language that makes us see things in a new way.”
Of the book’s many glowing reviews, the Christian Science Monitor said, “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.”
Treat yourself to Gloria Steinem in her own words.
It is also is a great last minute gift. Use it as a stocking stuffer, even if you can’t actually put it in a stocking. You’ll be inspired and so will your friends.