Gloria Steinem rejected the idea that it was her job to “pass the torch” of leadership in the women’s liberation movement to anyone in the younger generation.
Too hierarchical, she said. It implied there was one torch, held by one special person, and then by another special person. The truth, she said, was that real change happens only when there are many people, each holding their own torch.
Utah needs for that to be right, for that to happen. The situation for women — in the home, in the workplace, in positions of power — in this state is still far behind where it should be, where it is elsewhere. Even, by some measures, where it just was.
Steinem, for many the personification of the women’s equality movement of the late 20th century, died Sept. 2 in New York at the age of 92.
Less noticed, though no less mourned by those who knew and were inspired by her, was the death of Debra Daniels, at the age of 70, who had led the Women’s Resource Center at the University of Utah for nearly two decades.
Both women dedicated their lives to improving the role of women in a society that, for centuries, had considered females a second-class form of human being, fit only for childbearing and household tasks, not capable of choosing their own path or fulfilling their own desires.
Much has changed in the past 70 years. Women, and men, born in this century may find it difficult to realize just how much. But it is ground always in danger of being lost.
Utah, particularly, has seen a frightening amount of backsliding. We used to have several female presidents of our top public universities. A majority of the Utah Supreme Court was, for a brief time, female. All that has changed.
The male- and Republican-dominated Utah Legislature last session stealthily torpedoed funding for Utah State University’s Utah Women and Leadership Project. That after lawmakers lowered the boom on all campus centers dedicated to outreach to women and minorities. Including the U.’s Women’s Resource Center.
Utah continues to rate low on measures of female equality and opportunity. Costs, particularly for child care and housing, climb ever more out of reach. Wage gaps are the most gaping. Executive ranks are the most male.
If Gloria Steinem had lived to be 200, there would still be work to be done, in Utah particularly, to create equal opportunities for women, in education, in the workplace, in the economy, in the home.
She did, though, set a striking example, making the case clearly, politely, patiently, without shouting or hating.
For us, the work continues. There are a lot of torches to bear.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
Correction • Monday, Sept. 14 at 9 a.m.: Debra Daniels’ name was misspelled in an earlier version of this editorial.