Feminist Gloria Steinem talks social justice at N.J. college

Gloria Steinem

File photo of Gloria Steinem at the 2016 MAKERS Conference at Terranea Resort on February 1, 2016 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

(Alberto E. Rodriguez | Getty Images)

EWING -- It will be years before the women's movement accomplishes its goal of equality, but it's becoming more of a possibility as social justice movements continue to gain momentum, feminist and political activist Gloria Steinem told a packed auditorium at The College of New Jersey Wednesday.

"There are forces against us, but they're not the majority," she said. "All the big social justice movements and environmental movements are the majority movements now. We don't yet quite have a democracy so it isn't reflected all the time in top leadership, but it's a difference" from when she first started out.

Steinem, who visited the campus to help celebrate Women's History Month, said the inequality between men and women is often ingrained at a young age.

"Because we encounter it in childhood, we feel it's natural or inevitable," she said. "So it may seem less odd that one race dominates another, that one sexuality dominates another, that one class or ethnicity dominates another."

But that wasn't always the case, she said, pointing to examples in the Iroquois society where there was a mix of equal power between men and women.

"The paradigm for most of human history was not a pyramid; it was a circle," Steinem said. "We were connected as human beings and to all living things. We were linked, not ranked.

"It gives me hope that we can go forward in a different way," she continued.

Steinem reminded the audience that even small actions can have a big impact.

"The voting booth is actually the only place I know of on Earth where the least powerful and the most powerful are equal," she said. "It's not the most we can do, but it's the least we can do."

Last month, Steinem came under fire for her comment about the Democratic presidential race, saying U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' young female supporters were doing it to meet boys instead of backing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.

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