CENTIIRY FDN{INISM(speech givnon l3 February 2002) -A.21ST Gloria Steinem Author! journalist and feminist;co-founder, Ms.

magrzine A greatdealof efforl hasgoneinto Lrying makefeminism to misunderstood. Limbaugh, Rush ofcourse.is chiefamong lhe clrlpritshere. sincehehascoined \rord "feminazi," the whichis especially offensive becaus is historical. Nazis it The $'ercanti-feminist came powerspecifically and to against feminism. tlere havebeenother, Bul morcsublleeffolts,justas lherehavebeento demonrze wordslike "Lberal"and "affirmalivc action." Fenrinism means $.hatit saysin thedictionary: 'l'hebeliefin the\\-hole polilicalandeconomic social. equality ofwomenandmen.Obviousjy, womenandmencanand should feminists. be It means majorrevolution transforrnation.isn'tthe$,aylhe world is running. arenot lookingat thex orld asif a and It We l;male human beings people and ofall colorsrnatlered. whichis the goalof feminism.lhere is resistance takingaway to the world'ssingl biggest source ofunpaidor underpaid labor,not to mention world'smeans the ofreproductton, whichis probably reason the why reproductive issues 1be to lvomen's are key movements around world - u'hether is fighting the it against f-emale genital mutilation manycounffies in ofAfrica andtheMiddleEast,or smuggling contraception lnto keland,or the fight to be ableto havechildrenin safeO' well asnot to havechildren. as Therearealsootherwonderful r,r'ords. don\ havc10say"feminism." couldsay"*,omen's We We liberation.,, could We say'womanisl."We couldsay"mujerista." These alJgood['ords that simplymeanthe full humaniq/ are ofboth women 'Ihe patriarchal-nationalist system beengoingon in various has stages between andeightthousand five years. That's only 5 perceni ofhumanhistory,somaybe shoulddeclare an experiment failed.Evenin this youngcountrythere we this thal ha\,3 beentwo waves. Firstwastle slrffiagist abolitionist and wave,whichtookmorethanl0Oyea$ io gainfor womenof all mcesandmenofcolor anidentib, humanbeings. usefulto remembcr as lt's how recently mostofthe pcoplein this country $ould havebeenlitemllypropefty. tables chairs. perhaps surpflsing it's goingto takeus like and It's not that anolher century gainlegalandsocialequality. to Thefirsl stage ofresistance change passed that feminism to has isn't ncccssary, a womanrs that position natural, is that "my wife or employee interested ihis feminism isn't in stuffl,, the But second stage wrth us,whichis thal it used be necessary. it isn'tan],rnore. is to but Thereis alwaysanarticlesome\,vhere sayrng ihe movement over,whenin fact it hasjustbegun. that is We havemovedforwardin tlis first stage hugeleaps con in of sciousness. We'venade greatincurstons the into prof-essions in givinggreater and value the all-female to professions, we aremovinga barrier. but ThebarrierI experienced a student that "We don'thire women," thatifyou married as was you lostpretrymuchall of or yourcivil rightsr yourname, your creditratlng,your legaldomicile. gone. That's But it's still truethatwhenyou haveben in ajob for 10or 15years, hit the glass you ceiling,or you hit the stickyfloor of thepink-colored ghetto, whichis still whcremostwomenare.Yes,you canmakean equalmarriage now andnol Ioseyourcivil rights.But whenthe first child is bom. it becomes unqual again because, pui it mjldly, menin general though to thereareexceptionsdo not carefor infantsandlittle childrenasmuchaswomndo. Until thereis equahty the home, in therewon'tbe equality outside th home. As longaswomenhal'etwojobs,oneinsidethehomeandoneoutside, therecan'tbe equality outside. shuggles in The are placebut still verymuchpresent. anyyoungwomanis still asking a different If herself shecancombine career if a and Iamiiy,that'sa s),rnbol ofthe kind ofchange*, need, probably because manyfeweryoungmenateworryingto the same degreeaboutho\,i'they can combinecareerand family. We don't havethe structulal changes the systemthat we needso in thal all Pa.rents ofsmall children havea shoder can work day,a shorter work weekandcanadjust theirschedules to parenthood. Wele the only industrialized democracy theworld withoutsome in national system ofchildcare. *,itbout some nationalsystem ofhealthcarc.whichwomen need30 percenl morethanmendo because ofchildbearing. Some ofthe slmbolsandsignais ofthe 21stcentury with us in the stories are ofour individuallives.I getto heara lot ol them,because instantly l'm recognizable a symbolofthis change. as Youngwomenofmy generation said,"I'm not going to bean)'thing my mother," like whichwasa way ofdenyingthatwe couldandmighiwell havethe same fate,because il r-e couldblameherwe didn'thaveto admitthat it couldhappen us unless changed structure. instead, 1o we young the Bul

womcnno\\ sometimes to methattheyhopetheycanhaveasinterestlng life asthe; mothers. saJ' a Theycomeup 1() me lalks or in booklinesandsay."Thisis my mom.Sbe's bestftiend.I so admire after my whatshe's done.I seehow hard her lile hasbeen." Thereareu'aysin which our expectations to some and, extent, realides our havechanged. V-Day js a greatsl,mbol 2l st of feminism. hastumedinlo an eventon 600campuses century It e\ry year,in morethan20 counaies. contributed It's $6.5 million to effortsagainst violmceagainst women, starting ihe \r'ayall socialjustice out movements ou!:by tellingthe staft fiuth aboutour o$'nlives. E|e Enslerinterviewed women abouttheiroun bodies; invitingthernlo talk aboutthcir o*,n sexual physical and selves yieldedthese immensely diverse, entertainjng. fiagic,amazing monok)gues include that everything lrom earlydate experiences Queens rapecamps Bosnta. in to in Beoause recorded she womenrs wordsandtold the truthand real reenacted themanddjd it astfeveryone mattered, hascontinued gro*r from a theater sizeofa teacup it and the in downtown Manhattan Madison to Square Garden. lnitially, tfte New Fo,"tfirneswouldnot publishtheword "vagina" and Enslercouldnot publicize play;evenbookpublishers the wouldn1put word on the covet- which is why I ended the up $Titingthe introduction. thekind ofe\,'ent lt's whereyou're quitethe same not kind ofpersonwhenyou leaveaswhenyou arived. That's symbolic mebolh of wherewe areat tle beginning 21stcentury to of feminism how far we haveto go. and We arestill standing thebankof theriver.rscuing people on who arcdrow,ning. havenot goneto theheadof the We riverto keepthemftom fallingin. Thatis the2lst ccntury task. We linow whatthecauses ofviolenceareandho$,deeplytheyarerooted gender in roles.Thenormaljzation objecF of subject, conquered-conquercr, wirner-loser, gender by mlesconvince malehalf of thepopulation especially the menof anupperclass so-called or superior racialgroups thattheirsense ofrdentityandmasculimty depend controlandeven on dominance violence. and Thatis tle root cause. I don'tseeit muchcommented thatserialkillersandsenseless But on peopie killerswho go into some publicspace kill people and theydon'tknow,not for robbery anyrcason or exccptto kill pople areall male,whlteandnot poor.Theyhavebeen raised believe to thattley havea nght to be in control. Whenthat is floutedwith otherelements, otler thingscomeinto play andmurderers produced. are As we readour newspapers, discover we who the hijackers suicide and bombers wereon September1 andlndeed i who the leadership Qaeda ofal was:Theyarenot poor.Theyareall male. Theyarefrom the goups in theirown colntrieswho havebeenled to expcct certajn a amount ofcontrol.It's quiteamazlng theyarenot women, poor,not themost that not despised racialgroups theii o*fi settings. do we see remarked in Yet, this upon? No.I'mnot tryingto do a single-faclor analysis Yiolence; of therearemanydiffeientfactors. thisis theleastremarked But upon.andyet it is themostobvious. The televlsion commentators, a senseless after kll1ing, what's ask [Tong with our children. is not our children. is a h It very particular subsetof our childrcn. How can we humanizethe genderroles so that young men are misedto understand that theyhaveall human qualities? we've hadthecourage raiseour daughtem to morclike our sons, fewerofus have but hadthecoumge raise sons to our morelike our daughters. Thoseso-called lemininequalities only the qualities you are needtoraisechildren: patience. empathy, flexibitity,compassion. present everymanjustastheyarein every They're in Tfwe were10examine implications the oftheseclemthingsthatwe needto do in the futue, il wouldmeanthatwe a.e overihrowing humanizing to eightthousand or yearsofpatriarchy, fiv racism nationalism. weren't and We always organized nationalism, we don'thaveto be.We need consider by and to monotheism, because too, whenGodlookslike theruling class, u'ele all in Fouble. a bigjob- But if we look backandseehow far we'vecome. It's Justin our lifetimes, andprojectthatontothefuturc,we canunde$tandjust how muchfultherwe canseeourseh,es Wc loseheart go. somelimes, ifyou evergetdiscouaged feeldisempowered cerlainly minorityforces but and the thatarestili in - and confol in muchof our livestry to makeus leel disempowered remember eventhetoughest-minded that physicist - just no*, admits that theflap ofa butterfly's wing herecanchange weather the hundreds ofmiles away.