If I went out to do a man-in-the-street interview (using "man" in the generic sense), and asked, "How do you feel about the death of Gloria Steinem?" I would expect a puzzled look and a "Who's Gloria Steinem?" from most people. She got her fifteen minutes of fame during the era of feminism, but that era is fading. Feminism has been in its death throes for a long time. Babies and stay-at-home moms are making a comeback as the White House Baby Boom illustrates.
Will the death of a feminist icon make even a ripple in the media? The mainstream media, controlled by the Democrat party, will no doubt make a big splash for a day or two, but the ho-hum factor will soon return. Gloria Steinem lived a long life; she was 92. How many times have you heard (or thought) about her in the past two decades. Not at all for me.Was God giving her time to repent? I hope so. And I hope she did. That's my prayer for her today.
But the reality is that Gloria Steinem's day is over (at least for now). Family life is making a comeback. Karoline Leavitt turned in her press secretary mike to stay home with her little one. Usha Vance and Katie Miller are "just wives and homemakers" and proud of it. The thought reminded me of the song Just a Housewife from Studs Terkel's 1978 broadway production, Working, which unfortunately lasted only 24 performances. It praised the value of labor: firefighters, police officers, wait staff, etc. The one unemployed character in the musical was the housewife played by my sister Susie. She sang the song, Just a Housewife.
You don't get the sense of it from just listening to the song, but at the end on stage you see by her body language that she fully recognizes the importance and dignity of her homemaking role as "just a housewife" even though it's considered "Micky Mouse" by the world. I get goosebumps when she sings about her life describing herself as "like my mother." Our mom was a brilliant woman who chose homemaking as her "career" and reared ten children, not always flawlessly but with love and generosity. She was among that small class of women in law school in 1940 when she quit to marry my dad, a recent Naval Academy graduate and ensign. They survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, over thirty moves, and remained faithful for 44 years of marriage before my dad died in 1985. My love for reading was a definite gift from my mom.
Which brings me to my current project. I've been sorting through my books in an effort to purge, which for a bookworm is a real challenge. This morning I came across a book I've only dipped into, Women Who Make the World Worse by Kate O'Beirne who was the Washington editor of the National Review when it was published in 2006. I knew Kate casually and admired her work. She spent her life and career, like my mom at home, trying to make the world better. If they were alive today I wonder what Kate or my mom would say about Steinem. I suspect they would ask their friends to pray for poor Gloria who had a sad upbringing which may have spurred her feminist hatred for men, although it doesn't excuse it. What a shame that she never outgrew her bitterness.
Gloria often got credit for Irina Dunn's 1970 quip, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." What a silly statement! The only reason the world goes on is because of the love and commitment men and women make to one another. Do some abuse that relationship? Of course! Sin has damaged the marital relationship since Satan's attack in the Garden of Eden. But many today, particularly women, are recognizing the reality that men and women complement and need each other. We are not in competition or need not be. The number of accounts on substack that promote love and marriage, homemaking and homesteading, etc. give witness to the comeback the family is making despite a culture of family destruction. Some are written by former feminists. And it isn't just women. Men promote the value of fidelity and marriage as well. And big families are coming back as well.
Never despair of the future. Each of us contributes our part to making the world better or worse. Fr. Paul Marx, a pro-life warrior who founded Human Life International, often said if you want to do something to make the world better have another baby. Babies are, indeed, God's opinion that the world should go on. As Pope John Paul II said when he visiting the United States, "America, defend life!" May we do it with joy!
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