Womens Way <\/a>in honor of the l9th-century Quaker who devoted her life to the advocacy of women\u2019s rights and the abolition of slavery.<\/p>\nAnd so, as the sun was peeking over Manhattan yesterday morning, Steinem climbed out of bed, pulled on a pair of boots, chocolate-brown wool slacks and a matching silk shirt, hopped aboard an Amtrak train and chugged to Philadelphia for the celebration, which culminated last night in the fifth annual Lucretia Mott Award gala at the Bellevue Stratford hotel. <\/p>\n
This year, Womens Way chose none other than Steinem as the recipient of its medal. Like Mott herself, she is a fighter \u2014 and for a cause that, while certainly not lost, seems painfully far from being won.<\/p>\n
As summer begins, the 48-year-old Steinem finds herself in a situation that is, at best, bittersweet. Come June, she and her fellow feminists on the staff of Ms. magazine will be marking the 10th anniversary of the publication, which she helped found and has since served dutifully as editor and writer.<\/p>\n
For the occasion, she\u2019ll be throwing a bash at the Armory in New York and then will be jetting off to all corners of the country to appear as a guest on the Merv Griffin, Phil Donahue and \u201cToday\u201d shows (hence, the omnipresent cameras). Another bit of sweetness in Steinem\u2019s life: \u201cShe\u2019s Nobody\u2019s Baby,\u201d a documentary on 20th-century women that she and her Ms. colleagues produced for Home Box Office, just received a prestigious Peabody Award.<\/p>\n
Chances are, however, that Steinem will not be raising her glass in a toast on June 30. On that day, the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment will come . . . and, by the looks of things, go, with approval by three state legislatures still lacking. She is, understandably enough, angry.<\/p>\n
But beaten? Never.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to say that there\u2019s still a possibility of ratification,\u201d she pointed out. \u201cThe odds are slender, I know. But remember, there are only about a dozen aging white men who have to change their minds. It\u2019s still possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having said that, Steinem voiced what is virtually inevitable: \u201cOK, let\u2019s say it doesn\u2019t get ratified this time around.\u201d The people who worked before, she guaranteed, will continue working. And furthermore, she vowed, they will fight to reintroduce the amendment in Congress before this fall\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t as if the country doesn\u2019t support it, since opinion polls have shown just the opposite to be true,\u201d she said, then added vigorously: \u201cWe are going to stay. We are not going away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steinem\u2019s battle cry echoed yesterday afternoon through Bloomingdale\u2019s third-floor furniture department, converted into an auditorium for her lecture and a twin showing of \u201cShe\u2019s Nobody\u2019s Baby.\u201d If Bloomie\u2019s seemed at first an odd choice of forums, Steinem assured that suburban department stores are a logical arena. <\/p>\n
\u201cShopping malls,\u201d she smiled, \u201care what churches once were to Black women in the South. It\u2019s where everybody goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sure, a record-breaking crowd of 200 suburban women, children and a smattering of men had gathered there to hear her \u2014 and to pick up free samples of shampoo and copies of Ms. magazine\u2019s May issue. <\/p>\n
To the assembled throng, Steinem preached organization and demonstrated her caustic \u201clip.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of us are having flashes of revelation,\u201d she noted wryly. \u201cIt\u2019s dawned on us that we\u2019re becoming the men we wanted to marry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before dashing back to Center City, where Mayor [William] Green was waiting with an official proclamation in hand, Steinem exacted a promise from the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta do one thing,\u201d she urged. \u201cPromise me that, within the next 24 hours, you\u2019ll do one outrageous thing in the cause of simple justice. I don\u2019t care what it is. It could be saying, \u2018Pick it up yourself.\u2019 If you\u2019re employed outside the home, it could be comparing salaries.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her parting words, delivered with a mischievous grin: \u201cJust one outrageous thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucretia Mott, no doubt, would have approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Gloria Steinem \u2014 the author, activist and feminist icon \u2014 died on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116491,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-278286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-gloria-steinem-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}