fciwomenswrestling.com article, Wikimedia photo
During Women’s History Month, Female Competition International would like to express appreciation to courageous and innovative women who helped enhance the ability of women to live a life filled with positive options and choices.
We would like to take a moment and focus on the legendary Gloria Steinem.
Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. She travels in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She now lives in New York City, and is currently at work on a book about her more than thirty years on the road as a feminist organizer.
In 1972, she co-founded Ms. magazine, and remained one of its editors for fifteen years. She continues to serve as a consulting editor for Ms., and was instrumental in the magazine’s move to join and be published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.
In 1968, she had helped to found New York magazine, where she was a political columnist and wrote feature articles. As a freelance writer, she was published in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and women’s magazines as well as for publications in other countries. She has produced a documentary on child abuse for HBO, a feature film about the death penalty for Lifetime, and been the subject of profiles on Lifetime and Showtime.
On March 12, 2015, thinkprogress.org helps us see that even at 80 years old, Ms. Steinem is going strong.
Thirty women including famed American feminist Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Laureates are planning to walk around the highly guarded strip of land that separates North and South Korea.
“Our hope is to cross the 2-mile wide De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) that separates millions of Korean families as a symbolic act of peace,” A statement on the Women Crossing DMZ website said. “The unresolved Korean conflict gives all governments in the region justification to further militarize and prepare for war, depriving funds for schools, hospitals, and the welfare of the people and the environment. That’s why women are walking for peace, to reunite families, and end the state of war in Korea.”
The group’s march will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the division between the two countries. It hopes to hold international peace symposiums in the capitals of both countries to “listen to Korean women and share our experiences and ideas of mobilizing women to bring an end to violent conflict.”
The respected United Kingdom news source the Guardian quotes Ms. Steinem. ““It’s hard to imagine any more physical symbol of the insanity of dividing human beings,” said Steinem, a longtime advocate for women who has visited the South Korean side of the DMZ. “To me, to walk across it has huge, huge, huge importance.”
The women said they also soon will launch an online petition calling on UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, as well as President Barack Obama and the leaders of North and South Korea to take the necessary actions to finally end the Korean War with a peace treaty. The war ended in 1953 with the armistice.
Here are books written by or about Ms. Steinem that can be purchased at gloriasteinem.com
The inside flap of The Beach Book was covered in foil so that the reader could tan his or herself! This was one of Gloria’s earliest books and sprang directly from the addiction to travel she still has.
Outrageous Acts and Everday Rebellions was the first published collection of Gloria’s essays. Given that she was writing on sexual harrasment, genital mutilation, unequal pay for equal work, and other humiliating inequities facing women, she often says that she wishes it hadn’t still been relevant enough for a second edition. But there are also pieces and outcomes she’s glad could survive: a profile of Jacqueline Onasis that gives her the depth she deserves or recounting the 1977 National Women’s Conference that still hasn’t been matched. Click to buy Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions!
Marilyn: Norma Jeane is about Gloria’s experiences as an activist as much as any of her other books: she wrote it to fundraise and help Ms. get out of debt. It features gorgeous full color photos. The portrait illuminates as much or more than the photos do, since there is so much more below the surface of Norma Jean.Touring with Revolution from Within was an amazing experience for Gloria. Even though it was written more than fifteen years ago, people continue to write to her about their experiences battling low self-esteem. They often describe how self-esteem is related to larger issues around them that feel out of control. Knowing that it has ensured some that they are not crazy and that the system is crazy is exactly what the book was meant to accomplish. Click to buy: Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-EsteemAs Gloria describes in the preface of Moving Beyond Words, this is a unique genre: add water to any of its six parts and it would become a book. It is made of seeds drawn from other short pieces that grew into bigger stories. Click to buy Moving Beyond Words!The editing of this The Reader’s Companion was shared with the courageous and generous Wilma Mankiller, Wendy Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Barbara Smith. Painfully remembering the days before remedial histories such as “Women’s History” or “African American History,” Gloria had been hoping to find ways of getting Women’s History out of the classroom and into every day life. The diverse collection includes 400 short essays from more than 300 contributor.
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