Reporting class assignment

Leanne Fuller

Professor Alligood

Reporting

03 March 2010

Writer, editor, lecturer and feminist activist Gloria Steinem drew a crowd of 550 people plus overflow seating at MTSU on Tuesday, March 2 when she was the keynote speaker for the university's Women's National History Month.

Steinem was unfortunately suffering from laryngitis and couldn't give the speech she had prepared. The speech was instead read by Terri Johnson, director of the June Anderson Women's Center and student Chanera Peirce, after which Steinem participated in a question and answer session during which she was unable to speak above a whisper.

The speech itself focused on issues which divide people, such as race, gender, and age, and how differences should be learned from instead of feared.

"I'm more interested in changing society to fit people than in changing people to fit society" said Steinem.

    At the end of the speech, Steinem proposed a few courses of action for the audience: to avoid media stereotypes, listen as much as you talk, that mentoring is a two way street, not a parent child relationship but a partnership and that we should pay attention to Bell Hooks' shoe buying rule, "if we can buy shoes together, we can walk together."

Before moving on to the question and answer session, Steinem thanked the two women who read her speech, saying it sounded so much better than if she herself had given it.

The first question asked was Steinem's opinion of the healthcare debate. "I am profoundly upset that we don't have the public option" said Steinem, who pointed out that health insurance companies aren't allowed to categorize people by race anymore, but there are still "sex categories, so women pay 40 percent more."

"Being a female is counted as being a pre-existing condition. We still need to pass this bill but it is really inadequate," said Steinem.

The next question was whether women should still fight for an Equal Rights Amendment.

"We do need an equal rights amendment because the constitution doesn't apply. There are still laws that discriminate and some crazy city council can still make discriminating laws.[However] I think in real life we can't get it by a two-thirds vote in congress now," said Steinem, and suggested that maybe the younger women in the audience could see such an amendment passed within their lifetimes.

An audience member asked Steinem if she was aware that in eight states being a victim of domestic violence is counted as a pre-existing condition.

"This is like the Olympics for blaming the victim. Why isn't the batterer counted as a pre-existing condition? One in eight men is violent. That's a minimal estimate, so one in eight women will experience this. And we need to save the men from the cult of masculinity. You can't make this stuff up. It's so surrealistic," said Steinem.

The next question was how to address the lack of support for mothers in the workplace, regarding maternity leave, etc.

"We can attribute an economic value to care giving [of children or elderly people] whether it's done by men or by women and make that tax deductable or tax refundable. It does not take legislation. It takes a change in the tax code. If we contribute an economic value we can do this…It's [a job is] recognized as work because men can do it, so child raising isn't considered work. Any woman who has to ask, 'How can I combine work and family?' should turn to her husband and say, 'Why aren't you asking this question?'" said Steinem.

The last question was asked by a little girl who looked to be about 10 years old. She asked "Why haven't there been any female presidents?"

"When I was a little girl I didn't understand why when Franklin [Roosevelt] died, Eleanor couldn't be president. I think in this last election it made a big difference that we had a wonderful female candidate and a wonderful African American male candidate. I think it was too soon because there are so many of us [women] so we think that female authority is only for childhood," said Steinem.

Lastly, Steinem said, "I just want to say to this little girl, when you run for president I'm going to try to be still alive."