Editorial Content for My Life on the Road

Gloria Steinem’s MY LIFE ON THE ROAD traces her life’s journey and, with it, a timeline of the Women’s Rights Movement in America. A frontrunner of the movement, Steinem’s peripatetic life lends itself beautifully to a memoir interwoven with the emerging revelations of intersectional feminism.

Steinem begins with a poetically rendered recounting of her early days. Her father brought the family on treks that lasted longer than any time within a stable home, searching for adventure and trading for a living, and there began her familiarity with the road. Steinem reveals that her father’s roving, uncertain lifestyle may have held magic for him --- and eventually, for her, in the poignancy she discovers in sharing a liminal space with others --- but it took a heavy toll on her mother. So began Steinem’s understanding of the patriarchy, one of the earliest examples of the ways in which genders experience the world and its opportunities differently. Steinem yearned at times for the stability and certainty that her father seemed to find suffocating, yet she was appalled to find the oppressions that systemically keep women off the road.

Steinem’s memoir and her life address the fundamental misogyny writ into our Western mythology and society. As an example, she cites Odysseus vs. Penelope. It’s everywhere. Man: protagonist, adventurer, hero, allowed the fullness of character and psychology. Woman: sidekick, sex object, tragic backstory, allowed to be defined only by what she gives to or removes from the male protagonist. Man is permitted to yearn, journey and discover himself and the world. Woman is expected to tend the hearth, wait for him, raise the children, prepare a meal and ready herself for his advances when he returns. The road, in large part, does not welcome women. It does not facilitate their presence. Men are permitted and expected to travel and explore, and are often met with support, encouragement and eventually praise. Yet if a woman shares those desires, she is considered selfish, undesirable, less than, and, if she ever makes it out the door, is often met with condescension, scorn, violence, hatred, sexual threats and worse.

"MY LIFE ON THE ROAD is one of the most important women of our era speaking to us as if we are a confidante. It is personal, political and powerful --- massive in scope yet absolutely in love with intricacies."

It’s fitting, then, that Steinem’s love of the road and travel is tied inextricably to her lifelong campaign for women’s rights. Steinem found community on the road. By traveling from India to Native American reservations in the deepest Midwestern parts of our country, she learned from many different cultures. Her journey was not linear, and neither is her book, which is a collection of experiences that inform each other. Steinem experienced firsthand not only how patriarchy seeks tirelessly to reinforce itself in the face of reform attempts, but also how the women’s movement must advocate for, include and learn from Native women, black women, immigrant women, disabled women and queer women if it is to further its own cause at all. She saw resonance with their oppressions and recognized the pervasive power of white supremacy working against entire nonwhite groups, not only the woman. She also recognized that females of color, as well as queer and disabled women, face intersections of oppression that require their own attention as part of the Women’s Rights Movement.

“The root of oppression is the loss of memory.” So wrote Paula Gunn Allen, a Native American poet and lesbian activist. Those words resonate both with Steinem here and beyond her. When we allow our history to be told by the victors, we very often allow it to be biased by the oppressors. This begets lies that we tell our children and consequently creates a sociocultural misunderstanding of the fundamental truths of our nation. Many Texas textbooks teach that Africans “immigrated” to this country. Some children’s books refer to Harriet Tubman as a “field worker.” Most textbooks say that Columbus discovered this country. We cannot forget the truth. We must continue to tell it. We must remember, and base our future actions --- personal and political --- on the systems at work.

And so it is beautifully fitting that Steinem’s book ends with the departure of Wilma Mankiller, the first woman ever elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in modern times (women were commonly chiefs for centuries before white people ridiculed Native tribes for the practice). Wilma was a powerhouse, working towards independence, cultural preservation and equitable rights. She worked closely with Steinem for many years. Though MY LIFE ON THE ROAD spans decades and nations, it concludes with a moving tribute to Wilma. This is Steinem’s homage not only to the woman, but also to what she represents: the true beginning of this country, the true equality that comes not from a gendered hierarchy of responsibilities but from collaboration and communication, and the necessity of genuine memory.

MY LIFE ON THE ROAD is one of the most important women of our era speaking to us as if we are a confidante. It is personal, political and powerful --- massive in scope yet absolutely in love with intricacies. Steinem’s home today is a more stable solace, but it informs her love of the road as much as her travels have made the idea of a home a comforting one that does not have to mean the end of progress or adventure. The important thing is to listen to each other. Women do not necessarily belong in the hearth or on the road. Women belong where they choose to be. And, as Steinem emphasizes, so do you.