Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem Finds Hope On The Road

Gloria Steinem doesn’t like being called an icon. She sees herself as one in a tide of women who made and make change, so she doesn’t want to be put up on a pedestal.

But she is called an icon, and has come to represent the modern struggle for women’s rights and equality.

Steinem remembers being a reluctant spokesperson at first, but since the late 1960’s she has been a consistent voice for feminist causes.

She credits her wide experience as a traveler, from childhood on, for her consciousness about women’s rights and the pursuit of change, as she says, from the ground up. Steinem writes that travel is the reason she has hope in her new book ,“My Life On The Road.”

A journalist, activist, organizer and publisher, Steinem was a founder of Ms. Magazine and The Women’s Media Center.

She spoke at Benaroya Hall on Nov. 8. Her appearance was hosted by Hedgebrook and The Elliott Bay Book Company. Author and fellow traveler Cheryl Strayed joined Steinem on stage in conversation. Thanks to Jennie Cecil Moore for our recording.

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Hollis Wong-Wear opened the event with a spoken word performance accompanied by cellist Rebecca Chung Filice.