Address to the Women of America

Feminist Movement leader Gloria Steinem.

On July 10, 1971, at the founding of the National Women's Political Caucus, co-founder Gloria Steinem delivered an Address to the Women of America, which would become one of the era's most memorable speeches. The speech, delivered at the height of the Women's Movement, is considered one of the 20th century's greatest.^[1]

Not only did the speech address the issues of sexism and misogyny, but also those of racism and social class. The speech is mostly remembered for the following quotation.

This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences, have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups, and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen, or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.^[2]

References

1. Great Speeches of the Twentieth Century at Barnes & Noble
2. "Recording of the Address to the Women of America at MSN Encarta". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31.