What Would the World Be Like If Gloria Steinem Hadn't Lived?

I have no quarrel with Steven Kruiser's excellent retrospective on Gloria Steinem's life.

"There is no denying that Steinem was a powerful force in American culture and that her legacy will live on," Kruiser writes. "The perspective on whether any of that is good or bad exists on either side of a very wide ideological divide."

He adds, "The most benign thing that I can say about Steinem is that no one who knows her story is ambivalent about it."

After reading many obituaries and retrospectives on Steinem's life, a question jarred me.

Would American women enjoy the same rights, privileges, and opportunities they enjoy today if Steinem hadn't lived?

My troubled answer is: I don't know.

I have a slightly different perspective on Steinem than the women who write for PJ Media and the men, who are several decades younger, in most cases, than I am. I remember what it was like for women in the 1950s, '60s, and even '70s. I recently wrote about Nancy Grace Roman, a NASA executive and one of only three working female astronomers in the country when she took the job as NASA's chief of astronomy in the 1960s. 

Women were, if not outright barred from entering graduate programs in astronomy at most universities, deliberately slighted. Say what you will about DEI (and I've said plenty), America was consciously and deliberately shooting itself in the foot by leaving a massive amount of brainpower, energy, ambition, and sheer brilliance on the sidelines because of prejudice, bullheadedness, and stupidity.

As Steve points out, your perspective on Gloria Steinem depends on your ideological point of view. But I want you to play a little game I play when thinking about a historical figure. 

What would the world (in this case, America) be like if Gloria Steinem hadn't lived?

Would some other woman have stepped forward to lead? I think that's a given. Blacks were in the streets demanding equal rights, as were gays. Why not women? 

But would this Steinem replacement have been as effective? Would she have brought the kind of notoriety, recognition, and mass appeal that would have inspired millions of women across the country to rally to the cause? 

I think of my sister, Peggy Zwisler, and her legal career, which spanned more than 40 years. She wanted to be a trial lawyer, but the doors were closed to her. "We don't have girls in our litigation department," she was told by several top law firms.

Eventually, she got a job at Howrey LLP, along with 58 other attorneys, and began immersing herself in antitrust law. She worked her way up to become the first female partner at Howrey and moved on to Latham & Watkins, becoming the top antitrust litigator in the country. 

Throughout her career, she faced incidents like this.

Zwisler has story after story of gender-based discrimination from throughout her career, some cringe-worthy, some funny (at least in hindsight), and some downright sickening. Strategy meetings set in men’s clubs, where they snuck her in through the freight elevator. A name tag that said “Mr. Zwisler” because the (female) office manager declared there wasn’t room for an “s.” A co-defendant warning her before jury selection, “We don’t like Hillary Clinton down here.” Okay…? Or this one: “How did a nice little girl like you get involved in this tough antitrust litigation?”

Peggy was exceptional. And an exception. Not every female attorney who wanted to be a litigator made it. But I daresay it's a less fraught journey today, and I believe that's thanks more to Peggy Zwisler and the women who broke real barriers and overcame unbelievable (and unnecessary) obstacles than to Gloria Steinem.

That said, Steinem's provocative commentary on male-dominated society rarely scored a bullseye. She was often trolling her opponents when she said things like, "No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life." She knew it would create a backlash and gain her notoriety. Whether she was being serious or not, only God knows now.

She created a mystique that attracted women from every walk of life, every socioeconomic level, every race and creed. This is indicative of the power of her message, not her persona: “You should write about take-no-s**t women like me," she wrote in her autobiography. "Girls need to know they can break the rules." 

Steinem was, if nothing else, a rulebreaker. Her place in history is assured. Her mixed legacy is not.    

Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats desperately try to stop it.  

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