Modern Feminism: Steinem, Ginsburg, and the Women's Movement

Historical Roots of the Feminist Movement

Feminism today is especially guided by the feminists of old — prominent leaders of the past who continue to forge the path ahead for the modern women's movement. These are leaders like Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court and Gloria Steinem of the Women's Media Center. Many other prominent figures represent feminism today and are actively working toward the advocacy of women's rights across social, political, economic, and religious spectrums. This paper discusses the movement and the individuals who make it up as it exists in the present day.

To understand feminism today and the way its advocates represent it, it is important to understand how feminism came into being and how it has evolved.

Betty Friedan was shaped by much of what went on in early twentieth-century America. An avid activist and strong supporter of equal rights for women, Friedan took the opportunity on the fiftieth anniversary of the granting of women's suffrage to organize a strike for equality. Her book The Feminine Mystique essentially sparked the feminist movement. She claimed "that she came to political consciousness out of a disillusionment with her life as a suburban housewife" (Horowitz, 1998, p. 2) and wrote the book on feminism, literally, as a means of reinventing herself — much as Jewish producers in Hollywood had done. Not only did Friedan reinvent herself, she enabled millions of women to reinvent themselves as well. In this way she followed the mantra of Simone de Beauvoir, who stated that a woman is not what one is born but rather what one becomes (Beauvoir, 2004, p. 51).

Following the philosophical premises of Nietzsche and the postmoderns, who view life as a series of "repetitions" in which one endlessly strives to "become" what socio-historical trends stipulate (Kundera, 1984, pp. 4–6), Butler identifies an unavoidable obstacle in the act of "becoming." It is forever constrained by unforgiving terms and categories that prevent total consummation. One may spend an entire life trying to "become" a woman — but it remains an elusive identity (Butler, 1990) because it is still defined with respect to manhood. Today's feminists strive to actualize womanhood and define themselves apart from men.

Gloria Steinem and Women's Media Advocacy

To this end there is the work of Gloria Steinem, who has been a feminist advocate since the 1960s, making her one of the old guard still active in the movement today. Steinem founded Ms. magazine, a medium focused on removing the "male"-based orientation from the idea of feminism. She called for women's liberation in a 1969 article, and just as Friedan's book catapulted her to the front lines of the movement, so too did Steinem's article do the same for her. Today, Steinem has joined the likes of Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan in founding the Women's Media Center, which works to put women in the spotlight in media productions. She lectures widely and continues to be a leading voice for feminists. At eighty years old, Steinem is a true representative of the old guard.

Steinem has also advocated strongly for abortion rights for women. An article in a 2006 issue of Ms. was entitled "We Had Abortions" and described the impact of an article that had appeared more than thirty years earlier, before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal. That earlier article had included the names of women who had had abortions and were proud to admit it publicly; Steinem's name, along with those of other prominent women, was included.

Steinem, like Friedan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is of Jewish descent; however, her political focus is primarily on the advocacy of women's rights and women's empowerment. Her focus today is the result of her realization in 1969 that, as a woman who had had an abortion, she was a person taking charge of her own life (Cooke, 2011). For Steinem, the issue has always been fundamentally about reproductive rights: she believes men think they have the right to control a woman's reproductive cycle, and what feminism has taught her is that they do not. It is "Politics 101," she says (Cooke, 2011). Thus, she has been pro-choice since her epiphany in 1969 and leads a chorus of voices asserting a policy of pro-choice politics.

Steinem worked for Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential bid and still believes Clinton would have made a better president than Obama, because unlike Obama she is a fighter when it comes to women's issues (Cooke, 2011). Steinem's focus is expansive in the sense that she sees society as a whole in need of radical change — from laws to perspective to social mores. She highlights the arrest of French leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn as indicative of the great strides America has made in letting women know they have rights: that woman "knew" she did not have to accept his abuse (Cooke, 2011). Steinem's attitude confirms that feminism is succeeding in today's world: its perspective is being understood and embraced in more and more settings, especially on college campuses where she frequently speaks. She cites instances in which her late husband would travel with her on speaking tours and hundreds of young women would surround him, marveling at the fact that one could be a feminist and still have a husband (Cooke, 2011). Steinem views this as a success for the movement, which is about educating the next generation — a goal she pursues through media (her magazine), politics (her support of Clinton), and speaking tours. In this way, Steinem remains one of the most important women in feminism today.

Steinem is also known for having questioned the role of transsexuality within feminism. She wrote in 1984 that "if the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?" — suggesting that a focus on transsexuality redirected feminism away from reproductive rights and women's empowerment toward what she then characterized as bodily alteration (Steinem, 1984, p. 206). In the wake of criticism from other feminists, Steinem revised her position, stating that transgender individuals should not be marginalized but rather embraced, defended, and supported.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Legal Feminism

Part of that support comes from the work of women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is one year older than Steinem and is likewise a member of the old guard of feminists. Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 during the presidency of Bill Clinton. A long-time advocate for women's rights, she worked with the ACLU, sat on its board of directors, and founded the Women's Rights Project.

As a Supreme Court Justice, Ginsburg stated publicly regarding abortion that the "government has no business making that choice for a woman" (Bazelon, 2009). Her defense of the pro-choice position has been prominent and she is well-known for supporting a woman's right to choose. However, as a Justice she has also attempted to interpret the law according to the principles applied by lawmakers in Congress, and therefore does not allow her own personal preferences to dictate judgments from the bench. She does believe, however, that women's right to empowerment should be written into the Constitution.

Ginsburg expressed to Jeffrey Rosen (2014) in The New Republic that what she wants to see from young feminists is more organization and action. If they want empowerment, laws need to change to reflect their rights more clearly — and for laws to change, things must be accomplished at the grassroots level. Whenever she speaks at colleges, she articulates this principle: laws are written to protect people, and if women want equal protection under the law, they need to make their voices heard through effective organization and lobbying.

Ginsburg has always believed in being vocal, and she has argued that today's feminists need to be comfortable being called a "bitch," as she was called when she was in school. Her answer to that label was, "Better bitch than mouse," and that philosophy says a great deal about her brand of feminism (Rosen, 1993). It also says something about the state of feminism today when that same philosophy is echoed in popular culture — in sitcoms like Don't Trust the B— in Apartment 23 or the song by Alanis Morissette, "I'm a Bitch, I'm a Lover." The notion of "bitchiness" was once a put-down, but for today's feminists it has become a badge of honor. Women use the term among friends in casual conversation, indicating that outspokenness has become so normalized and accepted in popular culture that Ginsburg's philosophy has spread far and wide among women today.

Ginsburg's stance on abortion has also been important for today's feminists because it raises the question of whether government should be obliged to fund abortions for poor women who want them — a particularly controversial issue as pro-life and pro-choice factions battle in the voting booth and across branches of government. For Ginsburg, however, the issue is ultimately about women's rights and women's ability to make their own choices, supported financially when they cannot do so on their own.

Conclusion

In conclusion, feminism is alive and well in today's world. Its old guard is still going strong — speaking, touring, giving interviews, and writing books. Women like Gloria Steinem and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have made an enormous impact on the feminist movement over the years and continue to do so because of their high-profile positions and the respect they have earned. Whether they are advocating for a woman's right to have an abortion, a woman's right to control her own reproductive choices, a woman's right to equal treatment under the law, or a homosexual's right to marry, these women have used their voices to transform the next generation.

But they are not alone. There are many types of feminists, ranging in thinking from moderate to liberal, and even Steinem has at times been placed in every camp. The point is that such labels ultimately mean nothing because they are only meant to box someone into a certain way of thinking. As the artist Cindy Sherman shows, being a feminist is not about being boxed in but about exploring what is within oneself. That is, ultimately, the goal of the proto-feminists Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan — women who embraced the idea of "becoming." Discovering what one wants to become and then exercising the right to become it is what feminists advocate today: some in political ways, others in social ways, and still others in economic and religious ways.

References

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Cooke, R. (2011). Gloria Steinem: 'I think we need to get much angrier.' The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/gloria-steinem-interview-feminism-abortion

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