Discussion
Gloria Steinem’s death is an occasion to assess her legacy (not turn her into either a saint or a villain).
There is plenty to criticise, but dismissing everything she accomplished is just as intellectually lazy.
She was genuinely important to 2nd wave feminism. She brought women’s inequality into mainstream political debate, fought for reproductive freedom, workplace equality & the Equal Rights Amendment.
But her legacy also represents the limits of mainstream liberal feminism.
Getting women into institutions including corporate and political institutions is not the same as dismantling the economic structures that keep millions of women poor, exploited & dependent.
That is where socialist feminism asks harder questions.
Who does the unpaid care work? Who can afford healthcare and childcare? Who works for poverty wages? Who benefits economically when women enter the workforce?
Reproductive freedom matters but it cannot certainly be the endpoint of feminism.
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