In May of 1969, Emmanuel College (my alma mater) hosted one of the first women's liberation conferences in the US. One might imagine that a Catholic women's college was an unlikely setting for something as radical and edgy as a gathering on female empowerment, but Emmanuel had a long tradition of social justice activism: Catholic Worker, civil rights...
When I was there, a number of students were involved with Cesar Chavez and the grape workers' union. My first political act was picketing stores that sold non-union grapes. Many, many students were involved in anti-Vietnam War protests. And we had a chapter of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). And, yes, I was a member.
So, really not that big a surprise that Emmanuel would host a big women's liberation gathering.
Wondering whether it was the first one held, I went to the google, only to find that the Emmanuel gathering had been preceded the year before by one in Lake Villa, Illinois. Lake Villa! In the write up, it was described as a suburb of Chicago, and while that may - sort of - be the case today, in 1969 I'm guessing that Lake Villa was still The Country. Which is what we called it. My mother grew up in Chicago, and her family had a summer house on Sand Lake in Lake Villa, a tiny little farm and "resort" town 50+ miles outside The City. Every other year, our family vacation was to Chicago, but we spent most of our time in The Country at Grandma's lake house, across the street from cornfields and down the dirt road from a duck farm. By 1969, I hadn't been out to The Country since 1963 = after which the combination of the kids getting older and my father getting sicker, we no longer did our regular bi-ennial Chicago run. But I'm guessing that Lake Villa hadn't become a suburb that quickly. Anyway, I find it amusing that a seminal "women's lib" gathering was held there.
But, as is my wont, I digress.
I participated in that May 1969 conference at Emmanuel, even though my memories of it are largely sitting around in classrooms and conference rooms, just talking about and listening to, our experiences, and what we all wanted out of life.
I'm not 100% sure what big name feminists were there, but I'm guessing Gloria Steinem was.
It's hadn't thought about that conference in years, but it came to mind last week when I went to see the play Gloria: A Life at the American Rep theater in Cambridge.
And what a life Gloria Steinem has led.
Born in 1934, she had a pretty dysfunctional family life. Her father supported the family as a traveling antiques salesman. The family lived in a trailer that was toted around behind the family car. When the family finally settled down, it was in the wilds of Michigan, where her father decided to open a dance hall. When Gloria was 10, her parents split. She moved with her mother - who was mentally ill - to Toledo, where she became her mother's caregiver. At aged 10.
She escaped to Smith College, and then forged a career in journalism, at a time when women journalists were relegated to fluff articles, cooking, fashion... Gloria became well known for going undercover as a Playboy bunny, and writing an exposé of what it was like in the hutch.
She soon found herself as one of the founding mothers of the women's movement. And, among other things, founded Ms. Magazine. I was an early subscriber, and remember the excitement of getting my monthly Ms. fix.
It was all very eye opening and empowering for those of us Baby Boomers in the first wave of women who followed less traditional career and life paths.
The rest, as they say, is history - Gloria Steinem's with a Capital H, mine with a small h.
I met Gloria once.
A year or so before he died, my husband and I were walking on the Upper East Side of NYC when Jim spotted her. Jim was particuarly good at recognizing famous and semi-famous people. Some guy who played for the Knicks; Richard Anderson who played the Six Million Dollar Man's boss; Kurt Russell alone; Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Especially when we were traveling, there was always someone. On one trip to La Jolla, we had an especially rich celebrity-spotting day: Steve Garvey the ballplayer and Dolly Parton.
Gloria Steinem was easy to recognize - That hair! Those glasses! - and even I saw her right away.
Typically, neither Jim nor myself said anything to the famous names we saw, but we decided to say 'hello' to Gloria Steinem. Mostly, I wanted to thank her for all that she had done for those of us who came in the next decade or two after her.
She could not have been more gracious, and we ended up standing there on the sidewalk chatting for about 15 minutes about travel, dogs, The Cape... She then apologized and told us she was meeting some friends for dinner. "I have a good restaurant recommendation for you. Candle 79."
While the words "thank you" were coming out of my mouth, the words "Oh, we've been there. I hated it." were coming out of the mouth of my husband. And it was true. I was okay with a vegan restaurant, where we'd been dragged the year before by some vegan friends, but Jim wasn't too happy with a menu featuring the seitan. (Or, as he would have it, The Great Seitan.) I've been there since Jim's death, eating there with my then-vegan niece, and we had a great meal. But it was never going to be Jim's cup o' tea.
A part of Gloria: A Life dealt with the the book Our Bodies Ourselves, a book by women about women's health that was first published in 1970. (My friend Mary, who I went to the play with, still has her first edition, which was printed on newsprint.) To have access to so much information about us was amazingly liberating. We no longer had to rely on rumors, old wive's tales, partial information, and whatever we could get out of the doctors we saw (largely male, in those days).
Where did the idea for Our Bodies Ourselves come from? Why the Women's Liberation Conference of 1969 at Emmanuel College.
So I was kinda-sorta there at the creation.
The play was great, and I enjoyed learning more about the remarkable life of Gloria Steinem. There's still a long way to go, for the sisterhood to be as powerful as it has become is thanks in no small part to Gloria Steinem.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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