Photo by Pat Christman
Gloria Steinem spoke to a packed house at Minnesota State University Tuesday. About 1,000 people attended her talk which lasted a little over an hour and had about 20 minutes for questions afterward.
MANKATO — When Gloria Steinem made her way into the Minnesota State University Centennial Student Union Ballroom, her mere presence prompted a smattering of eager applause from a few hundred of the 1,000 people in attendance.
But when she was officially introduced — after an obligatory 5-minute introduction, and before she'd uttered one word — the crowd gave Steinem a standing ovation. And Steinem, in a move that signifies the grace with which she's championed women's rights for so long, stepped away from the podium and applauded the applauders.
Steinem, longtime feminist and founder of Ms. magazine, then launched into a wide-ranging talk that was part history lesson, part pep talk and part lobbying session for positive change in a country she says is making progress, but still has a long way to go.
The first wave of real change in this country, Steinem said, came with the abolitionist and suffragist movements, where blacks and women struggled to achieve a legal identity. Getting through that took about a century, she said. We are now in the next phase, the one seeking legal and social equality, and we're not quite half way through it yet.
"I don't know how to break it to you," she said, "but I figure we have 60 or 70 years to go."
She talked of barriers, and how although women have made progress in the workplace, there still is disparity in pay. Thirty years ago, women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. Today that number is up to 76 cents.
Economics, she said, holds the key to one of America's greatest problems. Forty percent of the work done in the U.S. is the kind that doesn't make it on a balance sheet. Caring for children or aging parents or AIDS victims consumes time and requires time and energy, but it isn't figured into the economics of this country.
Raising children should count for something, she said, no matter who does it. In fact, more men should be taking a more prominent role in child rearing, she said. If not, the same myths that tell young boys they need to fight and dominate will perpetuate.
And until that changes, the myth that there will always be war and men will always seek to dominate will continue to be used by those who wish to wage war.
Photo by Pat Christman
Gloria Steinem's appearance at MSU was the second annual Carol Ortman Perkins Lectureship. Last year's talk was given by actress and feminist Kathy Najimy.
"You cannot reach a peaceful end with violent means," she said. "It's just not possible."
To the young people in the audience — who made up 30 percent to 40 percent of those in attendance — she left a message of hope. She told them they owe the previous generation nothing, but they owe themselves everything. And if they want to see change, they must get involved.
"We have to realize that voting is not the most we can do," she said, "it's the least we can do."
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