Destroy To Create

Today is International Women’s Day. Here’s what feminist, activist and journalist Gloria Steinem said to Terry Gross last year about which issues are the most pressing for women today. 

“The most important issues are those to the women who are listening. I mean, it’s not about dictating to each other what’s important, but supporting each other in solving the ones that are in our daily lives. …

If you add up, in terms of the numbers of people, I would say that competing for No. 1 would be violence against females worldwide. If you add up all the forms of violence, whether it’s domestic violence in this country, which is at an enormously high rate — I mean, the most dangerous place for a woman in this country is her own home, and she’s most likely to be beaten or killed by a man she knows — or it is FGM, female genital mutilation, or it is female infanticide, or honor killings or child marriage. … But tied for first place is the ability of women to decide when and whether to have children, because that is a major cause of death, the lack of that ability. … And it is also a major cause of inability to be educated or to be free outside the home or to be healthy. I would say those two concerns — sexualized violence against women and reproductive freedom or reproductive justice — are right up there in our focus in every country.”