Gloria Steinem Sends Message For Harriett’s List
Gloria Steinem
In honor of dearest Harriett Woods: Thank you for supporting progressive women who have the courage to stand for what the majority of women want and need – and the majority of men, too. Thank you for the strength to enter into the U.S. political world that has been even less friendly toward women candidates than have most other democracies.
Sometimes when I look at the slowness of our progress, I think it’s because most of us, men and women, are still raised mostly by women. Deep down, we associate female authority with childhood, and feel women are not appropriate to adult public life.
Some men seem to feel regressed to childhood and literally unmanned by the very presence of a powerful woman. That’s the only reason I can imagine that grown-up serious news anchors said things like, “I cross my legs when I see Hillary Clinton,” and male students on campus wore T-shirts that said, “Too bad Hillary didn’t marry O.J.”
We may only come to parity with male leaders when men come to parity in the home and childrearing – which of course is a goal and a long-term necessity for so many reasons.
On the other hand, when I think of beloved Bella Abzug who led opposition to the Vietnam war and was the first to predict the impeachment of President Nixon — or Shirley Chisholm who single-handedly took the “White Male Only” sign off The White House door – when I see how the great intelligence and bravery of Hillary Clinton has changed the very molecules in the air, so now millions more can imagine a female chief of state – then I feel optimistic again.
Optimism is crucial – because hope is a form of planning.
By supporting Harriett’s List, you are making that hope practical. Think about the example of Harriett herself. If after her career in the state legislature, Harriett Woods had not been defeated by John Danforth for the U.S. Senate – defeated by an agonizingly small margin of less that 2 percent of all the votes in the state – we would have had her voice instead of his in the Senate. If my memory is right, we also wouldn’t have had Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court because he was Danforth’s choice — and on and on.
It’s the political version of, “For want of a nail, a horseshoe was lost, for want of a shoe, a horse was lost…..” until an entire historic battle is won or lost because of a nail.
Some said that Harriett’s support for reproductive freedom – the ability to choose for ourselves when and whether to have children – caused her to lose. But she won in the most conservative rural counties, including the one so delightfully called Little Dixie; the heart of anti-choice territory. Many there also respected and trusted her.
I think she would have won if she’d had as much money as Danforth. The battle could have been won if something like Harriett’s List had been there to supply the nail.
Individual races themselves multiply our investment, even without that radiating effect.
At every level, in every way, there is nothing more important than what you are doing by supporting Harriett’s List, now and in the future.
After all, there is no such thing as democracy without feminism – it’s not possible.
