‘A source of inspiration’: Hillary Clinton remembers pioneering activist Gloria Steinem

Remembering of Gloria Steinem, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 92, legendary feminist, and joining us on the phone to share her thoughts on that is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Madam Secretary, thank you so much for joining us this morning. As you hear about her passing today, give us some of your thoughts of her life and legacy, please. Well, I am really sad, personally, but also very grateful for the life she led and the activism that placed her right in the middle of the women's movement over the last, oh my gosh, now 70 years. And I was lucky enough to get to know Gloria as a friend. But I started as just a young woman who began paying attention to what she was saying about the need for women to have full equality under the law, because in the 1960s and early 70s, when she began her career of advocacy, that just wasn't the case. And then Ms. Magazine, which she spearheaded, came out, which was a revelation to many of us as we, you know, learned much more about disparities between the way boys and girls are treated and men and women were treated. But she did it with such grace. I mean, she was brilliant, beautiful, funny, so connected to the world in which she lived and had friends literally around the globe. And so it's a personal loss, but it's also a reminder about the difference that one person can make who lives a purposeful life. So I want to read you a line from The New York Times obituary that was really striking to me, Madam Secretary. Ms. Steinem deemed herself an entrepreneur of social change, and she helped usher in sweeping cultural transformations across virtually every facet of American life, from the boardroom to the courtroom to the bedroom. And I think that's a real part of her legacy here is that she she was so much to so many. I think that's a great way of, you know, putting the gloss on what The New York Times wrote in the obituary, because it's a absolutely accurate description of her impact. And, you know, she was not on the Supreme Court, but Roe v. Wade was part of her advocacy. She wasn't in Congress, but Title IX, opening up opportunities to girls in sports and academics was part of her legacy. She wasn't at NASA directing our space program, but Sally Ride finally becoming the first woman astronaut was, you know, part of what she stood for. And you could go on and on because the list is probably endless because her understanding of the need to, you know, create opportunities for women where they had not existed before or where they only existed to the very, very few exceptions just really drove her until literally the end of her life. I was talking with a friend this morning who had been in her famous living room at one of her gatherings, and she was talking about how much progress had been made, about the pushback to that progress going on now, but how we can't ever be discouraged. We have to keep pushing forward and make sure that we don't lose the gain that she was part of achieving. And Secretary Clinton, that's exactly the area I wanted to explore with you now. You mentioned all the areas that she was involved in, and certainly progress made, so much progress made over the decades of her life. But yes, there has been pushback. You mentioned Roe v. Wade just a moment ago. That, of course, overturned, and we see other sort of a reaction to some of that progress now. What are your thoughts and feelings? Are you troubled by where we are right now, or do you still remain hopeful that even if the progress at times can be halting, it's moving in the right direction? I am both troubled and hopeful. I am troubled because there is a reaction, both in what we might call the real world and particularly online, where women are being targeted with viral misogyny. But we're also seeing the chilling effect of the kind of rhetoric and actions taken by Trump and his administration. When I look at women that HGSEP is purging from the military, women who went to the military academy to serve 20, 30, 40 years in one of our military branches with great distinction, did everything they were supposed to do, and are literally being cashiered, kicked out of the positions that they had earned because they're women. And then you hear the kind of language that comes out of this administration under the guise of what they call DEI, which is code for we don't want women or minorities, people who don't fit the mold of what we consider to be real Americans, which is a pretty limited group according to them. So yes, I am troubled by the pushback and the retreat and the boardrooms and courtrooms and legislative halls. I see it. I am speaking out about it. But I also remain hopeful because the spark of equality and opportunity for everyone that is at the root of the American dream is not going to die because Donald Trump is trying to dig a grave to put in under his new ballroom. It's going to persist. And I think it's important to remember the example of Gloria. She never held a position in elected or public life, but she was very influential because she never quit on making it clear that we had to live up to our values, and that included equality for all. So we're going to keep going. And I think her example is going to serve as a real spur to that. And Senator Clinton, we'd love to hear just your own personal thoughts and memories of Gloria Steinem, your interactions, your conversations with her, including perhaps the last time you were able to speak with her. Well, she was very influential in my early life. You know, I bought my first pair of aviator sunglasses because I saw her wearing them. I had my hair long in those days. And, you know, she really was iconic from the first time she burst onto the public scene. But as I got to know her, she campaigned for me when I ran for office. She and I would talk about issues and strategize. I went to the play about her life and sat there in the audience with her and just marveled at how far she had come and what was kind of an unlikely path for a girl growing up in the circumstances she did. And I just found her to be a source of both inspiration and connection. I last saw her in her living room sometime earlier this year, where she would gather people together to keep talking about the changes we would need. But it was never heavy. It wasn't, you know, doom and gloom. It always had the element of light and hope, because that's who she was. She really wanted to bring out the best in people. And as I sat there talking with her in her living room and kind of reminiscing about some of the fights that we both had been in, it was exhilarating because she brought out the best in you. And so I'm going to miss her personally. But I also know, you know, she's going to live on. She's going to live on in the hearts and minds of people who, you know, really believe in what we said in the Declaration of Independence, that all people, as Gloria would say, are created equal and we have work to do. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we are so grateful that you were able to share some time with us and share these memories of Gloria Steinem with us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-bye. Lauren Leader, certainly Secretary Clinton, the perfect person to weigh in here, her life recently intertwined, you know, significantly intertwined with Gloria Steinem's in recent decades. Let's have some of your thoughts about Gloria Steinem and her passing. I mean, it entwined in mine as well. I mean, she was such a fixture in my childhood. And my mother was, you know, sort of a foot soldier for the women's rights movement, worked very closely with her throughout my childhood. And certainly like everything that is possible in my life is because of the work that she helped mobilize. And I chafe a little bit at the word icon constantly being used already in the press this morning, because she was so much more than that. Icon has this sort of like static connotation. She was such a mobilizer and the secretary really nailed it, that she was able to, even outside of elected office, affect such enormous change. And what was significant is that it was it's cultural change, right? Ms. Magazine was fundamental in changing the way women thought about ourselves, the way the culture thought about women's roles. Then the laws and the, you know, real transformation in the legislative world for women starting in the 70s, just the most basic rights that we have come to believe are fundamental today to bank accounts and housing and job access, all of that because of the political work that she helped organize. And then this long life, there's not one of us in the women's rights movement who hasn't spent time with her, who hasn't worked with her, who hasn't been inspired by her. I think she is probably one of the most important figures of the 20th century. I think that's exactly right. Michael Tomasky, in our last minute, just give us your thoughts too on Gloria Steinem, someone who you were able to watch for so many years. A titanic figure, very courageous too. I don't think anybody's used the word courageous yet, but nobody should be under the impression that it was easy for a woman to do the things she did in the 1960s and 70s. At the New Republic, my magazine, we did a poll of historians and other public intellectuals over the summer in commemoration of our country's 250th anniversary. We asked these people to make a bunch of lists for us. And one of the lists we asked them for was the most important women in the history of the United States. And it had the names you would expect, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Harriet Tubman, Secretary Clinton, of course. Gloria Steinem was on that list too. I think it was 14 or 15 women. So one of the 14 or 15 most important women in the history of our country in the estimation of these historians and intellectuals. And I think they got it exactly right. All right. Well said. Editor of the New Republic, Michael Tomasky, and co-founder and CEO of All In Together, Lauren Leder. Thank you both. And our thanks again to Secretary Clinton for sharing her thoughts as well.