Thursday, November 21, 2013
And the Award Goes to...
On Wednesday, November 20, 2013 ,
renowned women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem received the Presidential Medal
of Freedom from President Barrack Obama.
This medal is the highest honor the United
States can award an individual who is not a
member of the U.S.
military. The medal is “presented to
individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security
or national interests of the United States ,
to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private
endeavors”.
President Obama praised
Steinen for promoting “lasting political and social change in America
and abroad” and, among other things, for “inspiring us all to take up the
cause of reaching for a more just tomorrow.”
Steinen is a
feminist, journalist, and social and political activist. She has been a leader in the pro-choice
movement for more than forty years, and is one of America ’s
foremost feminists. She is the
co-founder of the feminist-themed magazine Ms., and has actively campaigned for
the Equal Rights Amendment, access to abortion, equal marriage, as well as
many other politically charged causes and organizations.
Upon
accepting the award, Steinem said, “I’d be crazy if I didn’t understand that
this was a medal for the entire women’s movement.”
Read her
interview here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/11/19/gloria-steinem-no-such-thing-as-a-feminist-icon/?wprss=rss_she-the-people&clsrd
