I wish I had read more of Gloria Steinem’s writing when I was still becoming who I might be. Her writing would have influenced me in a positive way, lighting my path more clearly. Her landmark essay was published in New York Magazine April 1969 – “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation.” This piece became a foundational text of the modern women’s liberation movement and helped Steinem be seen as a nationally recognized feminist writer and spokesperson.
Her first influential book was “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions,” published in 1983, one of her most famous commentaries. “My Life on the Road” was published in 2015, more than 45 years after her first work in journalism, and is her most widely read book, covering decades of her experiences that shaped her views. It is this book I am reading that is teaching me more than I could have imagined.
I was surprised to read about the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where Benjamin Franklin cited the Iroquois Confederacy. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy is one of the oldest continuous democracies in the world. Haudenosaunee strength was rooted in the significant political authority women held, contrasting sharply with political systems of colonial America and Europe at that time. Benjamin Franklin was aware that ancient cultures had much to teach and well understood Iroquois governance.
During Gloria’s decades of travel, many of her trips were through “Indian Country,” a term that was used by government for a legal descriptor, but Gloria learned that Indian Country was “a shorthand for our homes, … where we are known, where we are safe,” Indigenous women told her. In the chapter “What Once Was Can Be Again,” Gloria shared the wisdom she gathered from Indigenous women and men she met. Popular opinion at that time was that “equality between males and females was impossible and contrary to human nature” with a second view that “equality would be possible in the future for the first time.” After spending time with Indigenous women and men she realized a third perspective – “Balance between females and males had existed in the past, and for a few, it still did. There were people to learn from,” she wrote. Balanced and cooperative ways of organizing society existed before and if we turn our attention to understanding that social history, we can begin to imagine a better future.
Gloria learned of Indigenous traditions whose focus is on community responsibility, on consensus, on listening and respect for elders. Indigenous societies thrived where women held significant influence, where the individuals and communities were connected to the natural world and any decisions made required reflection on the broader impact of their choices. If societies once organized themselves in more equitable ways, those values can indeed be recovered and adapted for today’s societies. “Equality, shared leadership, and community-centred decision-making are not utopian ideas: they are practices that have existed in real [Indigenous]societies and therefore can exist again.”
Gloria was to speak in Columbus, Ohio in 1995 at the American Indian Science and Engineering Society Conference, a group that uses Indigenous examples when teaching native students science and engineering, so they can learn without feeling obligated to abandon their history and cultures. Gloria was invited to speak because of the cooperative nature of feminism, and these classrooms allowed for cooperative learning, not competitive. Gloria references Alfie Kohn’s book, “No Contest: The Case Against Competition” published in 1992. Kohn’s thesis is that competition is not the powerful force for excellence that many believe it is. Cooperative relationships often produce better learning, healthier communities, and more meaningful achievement. Kohn’s research was based on social-science and yet it parallels that of Indigenous philosophy. Kohn insisted that education in general could be improved if learning circles were in use.
Gloria was picked up at the Columbus airport for the long drive. She noticed a sign for “Serpent Mound” and asked the driver the sign’s meaning. “Ancient earthwork. There are many across the country,” he explained. Some are shaped like enormous birds and animals, some as circles or pyramids that are three stories high. This mound is a snake which is three feet high and a quarter mile long, the oldest of its kind, 3,000 years old. Gloria was stunned. She had travelled the country for thirty years and had never heard of these mounds that are older than Stone Henge.
The driver, who turned out to be one of the conference organizers, explained that the mounds are spiritual centres, used as astrological observatories or burial sites, all of which took centuries to build. The burial sites reveal how far the ancient peoples travelled and traded. Gloria was struck by the irony of the Columbus Airport named for a “terrible navigator who insisted to his dying day he was in India.” The Native women told Gloria, “It could have been worse – he could have thought he was in Turkey.” You need a sense of humour to survive a genocide, they said. Read the book; you’ll be glad you did.
wendistewart@live.ca
