Quotes from Gloria Steinem

Without the power to make decisions about our own bodies, there is no democracy.

Often asked why you're not married? Explain: I can't mate in captivity!

government with the power to forbid birth control or abortion could also enforce one or the other—but

Revolutionary Petunias: Blooming Gloriously For its Self

stewardesses of the 1960s had filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), trying to change the "no men, no marriage" policy of their job. Aileen Hernandez, the only female or African American on the EEOC, supported them. Years later they finally won, but the airlines called the ruling "improper" because Hernandez, after leaving the EEOC, had become president of the National Organization for Women. A judge actually agreed.

human beings have an almost infinite capacity for adapting to the expectations around

ordinary people are smart, smart people are ordinary, decisions are best made by the people affected by them, and human beings have an almost infinite capacity for adapting to the expectations around us—which is both the good and the bad news.

if I had to name the most important discovery of my life, it would be the portable community of talking circles; groups that gather with all five senses, and allow consciousness to change.

For instance, Americans are supposed to cherish freedom, yet we imprison a bigger percentage of our people than any other country in the world. I talk to students who are graduating in crippling debt, yet don't connect this to state legislatures that are building prisons we don't need instead of schools we do need, and then spending an average of fifty thousand dollars a year per prisoner and way less per student.

You white women, Mrs. Greene said kindly, as if reading my mind, if you don't stand up for yourselves, how can you stand up for anybody else?

The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; A movement is only people moving.

To the religious right wing and much of the mainstream, we were defying God, family, and the patriarchy they decreed. To the left wing and some in the mainstream, bringing up bias against females was a distraction from struggles over class, race, and other issues that were taken more seriously, because they also affected men.

began to see that for some, religion was just a form of politics you couldn't criticize.

Those without money learn the valuable lesson that money doesn't cure all woes. Instead, it may actually insulate and isolate.

self-esteem as the prerequisite for democracy – and for equal power within a democracy

Nonetheless, all the excuses of my conscious mind couldn't keep my unconscious self from catching the contagious spirit of those women who picketed the Oak Room. When I faced the hotel manager again, I had glimpsed the world as if women mattered.

Judy Collins sings about in "The Blizzard," or read Alice Walker's essay "My Father's Country Is the Poor." Each

Since studies show that low self-esteem correlates with both prejudice and violence – that people who have a negative view of themselves also tend to view other people and the world negatively – representatives were interested in introducing self-esteem programs in schools.

the central concept of self-esteem – the belief that each person counts and can make a difference

I had retreated to reporting because I doubted the reality of my inner voice

If, in monotheism, God is man, man is God. Why does God look suspiciously like the ruling class? Why is Jesus, a Jewish guy from the Middle East, blond and blue-eyed?

The New York Times op-ed page changed it to "Women Are Never Front-Runners.

Airline passengers usually look like where they're going—business suits to Washington, D.C., jeans to L.A.

Superwoman is the adversary of the women's movement.