Roommates learn from, cheer famous feminist

 

 

 

PULLMAN, Wash. – When Gloria Steinem drew two standing ovations at the University of Idaho Kibbie Dome last week, three Washington State University students were among the thousands of admirers on their feet.

 

And Steinem hadn’t even started her speech.

 

Steinem in the 1970s.

Steinem, a journalist and leader of the feminist movement’s high tide of the 1960s-70s, was on the Palouse for the UI Women’s Leadership Conference, co-sponsored by WSU. When the 78-year-old glided onto the stage looking sleek and quietly elegant, WSU students Shea McCammant, Alyssa Wade and Morgan Haley stood and clapped their hands in recognition of the work she did decades before they were born.

 
Who says the younger generation doesn’t “get” how the women’s movement impacted their lives?
 
Before Steinem’s presentation, these WSU students knew that she once wrote a story exposing the demeaning treatment of Playboy bunnies – after working as an undercover bunny herself.  They also knew that she co-founded Ms. magazine, written and edited by women back when men’s names saturated the bylines and editorial staffs at newspapers and magazines everywhere.
 
If it weren’t for Steinem and other feminists, “I’d probably be married by now with no chance of a career and not able to get a credit card without my husband’s signature,” said McCammant, a 22-year-old psychology major planning to attend graduate school.

 

Even so, when Steinem began her talk with recollections of how, 40 years ago, airline stewardesses were required to wear girdles, be single and under age 30, McCammant, Wade and Haley, all roommates, cringed.

 

“That’s so sexist,” said McCammant. “I can’t imagine men ever putting up with that.”

And there’s more. Also 40 years ago, major airlines began marketing sex appeal to lure male passengers on board their flights, Steinem told the crowd. For example, stewardesses with National Airlines had to wear “Fly Me” buttons while serving passengers – as in, “I’m Linda. Fly me.”
 
“The idea was that this woman was supposed to be a waitress/geisha person, even though she could calmly evacuate hundreds of people from a jet during an emergency,” said Steinem, her trademark zeal softened by age and grace.

 

Eventually, flight attendants fought back by wearing their own brand of buttons that said, “I’m Linda. Go fly yourself,” she said, drawing laughter from fans in the bleachers, ranging from students clad in sweatshirts and backpacks to moms and daughters and husbands and wives.

 

Wade, 22, a hospitality and business management major, said she grew up hearing stories about men rising through the ranks while women remained anchored to their typewriters and about how pregnancy could get a woman fired.

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t around then,” said Wade. “I’d have been happy wearing a ‘Go fly yourself’ button and would probably have mouthed off and gotten fired.”

 

Steinem also addressed Title IX, a federal law passed 40 years ago that prohibits sex discrimination in public education programs. Before Title IX, no sports culture existed for women, she said.

“Among other things, (the law) made it acceptable for females to be physically strong,” explained Steinem, which bolstered the view that women’s bodies are instruments, not ornaments.

 

In 2010, TIME magazine named Steinem among the 25 most powerful women of the past century, though the soft-spoken woman in black pants and a red top didn’t convey that image during her talk.  The struggle for equality didn’t come from one feminist or one group, she told the audience. It rose collectively from people concerned about human rights, such as the civil rights leaders of the 1950s-60s.

 
“The idea of equality is profoundly contagious,” she said.
 
It’s so contagious, that when Haley, a 19-year-old elementary education major, learned that Steinem would be speaking on the Palouse, “I contacted my mom and she was so excited that I planned to go. She really got it across that, largely because of Gloria, there’s so much more we can do today.

 

“She’s humble and doesn’t take credit for the changes,” Haley said. “But listening to her tonight, I can tell: There’s only one Gloria.”