Feminist activist and journalist Gloria Steinem visited a crowded Morano Gelato on Friday to speak to a crowd of 50 College students and community members on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The audience was mostly comprised of women — from high school students to older residents from the Upper Valley.
In her talk, Steinem emphasized Clinton’s understanding of gender and its relevance to the upcoming election. Dartmouth for Hillary volunteer Charlotte Blatt ’18 said that Steinem, who is well known for her writings and activism, connected her experience — which Blatt said Dartmouth students feel strongly about — with aspects of Clinton’s campaign.
“To have her speak out for Hillary really indicates that Hillary is the candidate that embodies the feminist perspective that’s important to young women,” Blatt said.
After being introduced by Blatt, Steinem began her talk by mentioning the 2008 presidential race between President Barack Obama and Clinton. She said that she had been indecisive for a portion of that race due to the similarities between Obama and Clinton, but had ultimately supported Clinton due to her experience.
“I wrote that we could have eight years of Hillary and eight years of Obama, and now I’m hoping we have eight years of Obama and eight years of Hillary,” Steinem said. “I do think there are things that only Hillary understands.”
Steinem emphasized Clinton’s ability and experience beyond her relationship to the Clinton family. She said that Hillary Clinton had “not been born a Clinton,” and that she has been a skilled political thinker ever since her graduation from Wellesley College in 1969.
“She’s always been her own person with her own work, her own conscience and her own compassion,” Steinem said.
Steinem said that Clinton understands that not all injustice can be measured by economic statistics, and that race, sexuality and gender all play roles in divisions between people. She said that this understanding is why Clinton has a large majority of the African-American vote.
Steinem added that another crucial subject in foreign policy that only Clinton understands is how violence against women — rather than economics or religion as some might believe — is the biggest indicator of whether a country is violent within its borders or willing to use military violence against another nation. Citing systems of patriarchy that sought to control rights like reproductive behavior, Steinem said that the need to control women became even deeper in places with heightened racism or discrimination, such as the caste system in India.
Patriarchal systems did not always exist, Steinem said, citing North American indigenous languages that did not have gender pronouns. She said that there had been a time when people had been linked rather than ranked, when people had formed a circle rather than a pyramid.
“It’s so crucial to have this in your head,” Steinem said. “Violence against females is such an indicator of all other behavior, because it just isn’t present in our foreign policy.”
Steinem said that attitude towards women is a reliable factor in the context of identifying Syrian moderates from extremists, She said that the United States had failed to account for this in Afghanistan, and had inadvertently armed the Taliban.
Reading an excerpt from her book “My Life on the Road” (2015), Steinem said that Missouri Lieutenant Governor Harriett Woods’s close defeat in the race for the U.S. Senate by Republican Sen. John Danforth led to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s career in Washington — namely, his appointment to the Supreme Court. Thomas’s vote against a recount for the 2000 presidential election ultimately led to Al Gore’s defeat and George W. Bush’s presidency, she said. Using this chain of events to point out failures in Bush’s terms as president, Steinem emphasized again the importance of selecting the right candidate for president.
Steinem also took questions from the crowd, including one comparing Bernie and Jane Sanders to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. While she believes that Clinton has more experience than Sanders, especially in foreign policy, Steinem said that she does not think that one has to be against Sanders to be for Clinton.
Steinem also took a question about Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs and their effect on Hillary Clinton’s feminist appeal, saying that they were irrelevant to the presidential campaign if his sexual encounters had been consensual. She said that “welcomed” sex was no one else’s business, and that no one had ever accused Clinton of sexual harassment, including Monica Lewinsky.
Steinem took a question from a Dartmouth senior on advice on entering the workforce. She criticized the amount of debt students had after graduation, and encouraged the student to not feel limited to one plan.
“Most of all, trust your instincts,” Steinem said.
High school junior Andrea Gilardi, who attended the event, said that she admired how Steinem had dealt with the question of Bill Clinton’s affairs and had pointed out that the issue was not relevant to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“She made it clear that this is Hillary as a whole, and [Bill Clinton’s affairs are] not a part of her,” Giliardy said.
Dartmouth for Hillary volunteer Emma Marsano ’18 said that it felt “surreal” to see Steinem in person.
“It’s amazing to be able to work this event and to watch the feminist movement come out to support Hillary and underline the fact that our work isn’t done and people are still fighting,” Marsano said. “We’re not in a post-sexist, post-racial world, and [Steinem’s] fight for equality still hasn’t ended.”
Blatt, who introduced Steinem, said that she found Steinem’s statements about foreign policy and the connection between violence against women and violence in certain geographical areas particularly interesting.
“Hillary Clinton is the only presidential candidate to grasp this and have enough foreign policy experience to deal with it and bring justice to these women,” Blatt said.
Marsano is a member of The Dartmouth business staff.
