Gloria Steinem: GOP Women Have a "Right to be Wrong"

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Republicans ,; Campaign 2010

Feminist leader Gloria Steinem told CBS News anchor Katie Couric that while female Republican politicians may not support policies that advance women's rights, "they have an absolute right to be wrong."

"I defend their right to be wrong," the writer and activist said in an interview for @katiecouric (Watch a clip of her remarks in the video to the left). "But the reason they are being put forward is that the women's movement has been so successful."

While women remain underrepresented in government, there are a number of female candidates in this year's midterm elections, particularly a number of high-profile female Republican candidates. Candidates like California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina and South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley are helping the GOP catch up to the Democratic Party, to which most female politicians still belong.

"The Republican Party saw how well Hillary Clinton did and is now fielding female candidates," Steinem said. "But the good news is, this is an electoral process, and people are smart, and they can look at the issues and understand."

Steinem made the point that policies beyond abortion rights can impact women. She said Fiorina's position on taxes would deprive women of child care, for instance, and that voters will take note of those issues.

"Just as more men than women supported Sarah Palin the last time, I suspect it may happen again," she said.

Gloria Steinem on Palin: Feminists Don't Criminalize Abortion

@katiecouric: A Woman's World?

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
Follow on Twitter »

5 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment


by ScarlettCooper June 24, 2010 11:49 AM EDT: Add your voice to the conversation at www.bodyrepublic.org; Reply to this comment

by mojitoman June 23, 2010 8:58 PM EDT

Gloria Stenheim reminds me of a seeing a dried-up cowpie lying out in the pasture. It appears to be old and hard and doesn't smell.... but when you step on it, it cracks and your foot is covered in a gross, stinky, slimey, putrid mess. That is Gloria Stenheim.

Reply to this comment


by user000049586849302948602 June 24, 2010 12:06 AM EDT: Very classy. I guess you're just upset that another 100,000 repuglitards just left the party. So sorry. Lo siento!.


by rdupuy11 June 25, 2010 11:06 PM EDT: I like Gloria Steinem, even if she is a classic gender bigot. I like her because, despite the fact that her beliefs about women are off kilter, at a legal level she has fought for equality, and equality is an important concept that benefits everyone in society.

But where she goes wrong, for example the other day she said that men should volunteer to have their wages lowered - that she thinks, would then protect them from layoffs, and solve what she regards as a problem - the idea that women make less than men.

Few problems with that - one is that men paying child support, already have their incomes equalized, with money transfers to their ex-wives. If they volunteered to have their wages lowered, their wages would be impugned, and they would pay child support just as if, they made the higher market rate - and they would go to jail for not being able to pay the child support.

Add to that, the money transfer, is not accounted for at income tax time.

Now under Obama's healthcare plan, a middle class american who does not have health insurance through an employer, can get health insurance with a heavy subsidy from the government. If a man's real wage was calculated at $55,000, he'd pay $4400 per year on a family of four. But the government may not use his real wage - his actual wage after the money transfer to his ex is removed off the top of his income. No - they will use the 'before' rate, and if thats say $66,000 per year, he's now paying $6600 per year for health insurance.

She actually thinks its a good idea for a man, to ask for a wage decrease, even though it may mean - 1, going to jail if he can't afford his child support any more, it may mean he can no longer afford health insurance that he's been ordered to carry, it may mean his own personal bankruptcy.

She doesn't consider the facts - when it comes to Men. She believes in equality in a kind of ethereal way, but by failing to understand the issues, she issues just horrible advice, that no man can really follow.

And then you demonize the man for not following that bad advice...how classy.


by larry0304 June 23, 2010 1:10 PM EDT: And ANOTHER liberal heard from. The day these liberals slither back under the rocks they came out from will be a day to celebrate in America.; Reply to this comment