Gloria Steinem at SDSU
Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon and journalist who died this week at age 92, was a popular figure on the college lecture circuit and spoke to San Diego State University students at least twice over a 16-year period.
Her college appearances were a major component of her work in feminist organizing, telling students of what she regarded as the importance of women’s reproductive freedom as a basic human right, and the impacts of sex discrimination and economic inequality.
In her March 8, 1984 visit, covered by The Daily Aztec, Steinem spoke of women in the workplace and how “worldwide, women’s jobs are not considered work.”
“As more women become more involved (in traditional jobs), the value of the job goes down,” she was quoted in an article by Joe Shoulak and Brad Eigen. The family, she said, “will remain oppressive to women as long as she is the unpaid servant.”
In October 2000, Steinem spoke at a candlelight vigil as part of a then-annual “Week Without Violence.” Daily Aztec opinion editor Ross von Metzke’s front-page article dwelled heaviy on Steinem’s marriage the previous month to David Bale, but also quoted her musing on the importance of women’s reproductive rights in the presidential election that was just a few weeks away.
The prospect of reversing Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court which had recognized the right to abortion in the U.S., was on Steinem’s mind during the visit. At the time, an anti-choice human life amendment to the Constitution had been proposed.
“It would mean criminalizing abortion,” Steinem said. “It would effectively nationalize women’s bodies during all of our child-bearing years.”
“It’s a legal nightmare which doesn’t exist outside of very fundamentalist countries,” she continued. “It is not supported by most Americans but it could be enacted by the combination of an anti-choice White House, an anti-chice Congress and a new anti-choice Supreme Court.”
Twenty-two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade by a 6-3 vote in the Dobbs decision. Abortion is now prohibited in 13 states.
SDSU Library Archivist Amanda Lanthorne provided research for this article.
