Community & Government
Meet Your Instructors
Lesson time 06:14 min
Gloria shares the personal journey that brought her to the women’s movement and introduces her co-instructors.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Meet Your Instructors
Gloria Steinem and Noted Co-Instructors
Four women’s rights activists discuss the feminist movement in the U.S., ways they’re creating change, and how you can join the fight for equality.
Sign UpPreview
[MUSIC PLAYING] GLORIA STEINEM: Looking back on my own state of consciousness, I realized that I was drawn to the women's movement because I was feeling boundaries in my own life. And so I felt a kind of urgency and connection. That connection is the important thing because it is a rebellion. It is our innate human rebellion against hierarchy. [MUSIC PLAYING] I didn't set out to be a feminist organizer until women inside the civil rights movement and inside the anti-war movement could see that, even inside those idealistic movements that we loved, women were not equal there either. So there clearly needed to be a diverse women's movement in addition to the other movements. When I began to try to make a living as a freelance writer, I would propose writing about the mayor of New York City at the time. And they would say, well, why don't you write about his wife, or how about writing about textured stockings? OK, I think that was the low point of my journalistic life. I wrote a whole article about textured stockings. Clearly there was a building motivation to start other publications. "Ms. Magazine" began as a 30-page sample in "New York Magazine" that was cover dated spring because we thought it was going to lie there on the newsstands for three months. We didn't want to embarrass the movement. I set off across country. And when I got to California, it turned out it had sold out in eight days instead of three months. That is a clear signal that this magazine is needed. It's just possible that historians will look back at this time and say that for the first time the human animal stopped dividing itself up according to visible difference, according to race, or according to sex and started to look for the real and the human potential inside. Right on. Some would say that we're in a post-feminist era because they hope it will go away. But we are so not in a post-feminist era. We're celebrating this huge distance we've come. And I need young people who are mad as hell to show how long the journey will be. MAN: Who screams? CROWD: I scream! - To watch this class, you don't need to be a woman. You don't have to be an activist. We're going to have a full circle discussion about issues in the workplace, such as pay equity, sexual harassment, and caregiving. We're going to talk about the importance of joy and pleasure in social movements, as well as the roots of violence that cause domestic abuse and sexual assault. CROWD: Stop fighting! Stop hate! - We're going to be discussing a movement, so we have to become a movement. We will be joined by Tina Tchen, an attorney and former White House advisor to President Obama. TINA TCHEN: Right now, we are in a transformational moment where we can realize this new vision of what work can be. There will be something that will strike your heart and will be the thing that really sparks the desire to do even more. GLORIA STEINEM: We will also...
About the Instructor
Women’s rights activists and political changemakers Gloria Steinem, adrienne maree brown, Amanda Nguyen, and Tina Tchen know there’s strength in numbers—especially in the fight for equality. Now, they’re coming together to dissect the issues women have faced in the U.S., talk about their advocacy efforts and personal challenges, and introduce ways you can play an active role in the feminist movement in your everyday life.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Gloria Steinem, adrienne maree brown, Amanda Nguyen, and Tina Tchen
Four women’s rights activists discuss the feminist movement in the U.S., ways they’re creating change, and how you can join the fight for equality.
Explore the Class