my wife and i ran at an event for gloria steinem recently. -- you need unity of purpose if you are going to get anything done. they were chanting about the notion that the occupy movement is male-century. -- male-centric. they had a chance that that it t mean 99% men. you have people rending this garment of unity. >> you always find there are divisions. we have written about the fact that the camp in bloomington was run by women. the unity is around a core messages of the movement. the leadership of a movement drives people batty. where are the leaders? it is more of a leader-less movement and the new left was when you have a lot of gusy in power. it is not one place. there is a unity of issues. ending inequality, making people pay their fair share of taxes, finding a way out of the student debt slavery, finding ways to keep people in their homes, stopping the evictions, making sure that those who got us into the economic mess, the bankers and wall street, be held accountable -- and getting money out of our politics. [applause] >> one place you want to occupy for sure is the white house.

women like gloria steinem, who earned our respect by bringing women's equality into the mainstream, or rosa parks, who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman. she became a powerful symbol of the civil rights movement. and don't forget candace let mayor, who lost her child to a drunk driver. she joined with other grieving mothers to create one of the most successful grass-roots efforts in american history, mothers against drunk driving. for those of you who did the morning sessions, you have taken a closer look at violence and health-care issues within the context of women around the globe. in the midst of gathering information and listening to some statistics, it is hard sometimes to remember the human aspect of these numbers, the personal stories and someone's word spread that is why for today i decided to tell you the will of my own story. i am one of those statistics. it is my hope by sharing some of my story that it will resonate with you and perhaps _ the simple fact that we are all individuals who have choices to make. each of us can make a choice to stand up and j

their list of folks on the cover or pictures of people on the cover overlooked betty fredan and gloria steinem. this is a pretty establishment, up east sort of people. and so i wonder about nominating someone. the person i'm going to nominate, however, achieved probably the first thing he did in 1862 of great consequence was to frame some legislation that transformed a modern industrial nation, would-be industrial, would-be nation into a modern nation. framed in legislation. this person also near the end of 1862 laid some claim to be a significant emancipator of slaves. and so the person i'm nominating, you all have figured out by now, this creator of a modern nation, this emancipator of slaves, was robert edward lee. pause for applause. okay. let me suggest some of the context here in which lee functioned. because through the first year of the american civil war, which includes half of -- if it

this is something gloria steinem called for repeatedly.be a policy solution enron any could suggest. right now governor romney's policies will make it harder for women to make the same choice that ann romney made to stay home and we have to get -- megyn: i want to point out for the record, you keep mentioning gloria steinem. that's the same person who said sarah palin and michele bachmann are women only a man could love. that's a controversial figure and someone who is not a champion of all women and there is a question about whether she could be held up as a champion of women. >> she is a champion of homemakers. >> you want to bring us all together? i think it's time to respect all women in their choices. there is no question mitt romney is out there trying to make certain we can create jobs so all americans can have their dreams again. that will help all of us. under obama women have been losing their jobs. they have been set back 20 years. don't tell me mitt romney's message isn't for women. it's for all americans. >> i'm of the twitter

gloria steinem joins me now. welcome to the program.u. >> we are watching in a primary season getting under way this war for the women's vote. there was a day when the woman's vote maybe was irrelevant. sudd suddenly, everyone wants to say i'm better for women and the economy for women. when you see this debate happening on the campaign trail, what do you think? >> it's satisfying now that we know the gender gap is huge. i's crucial. it's alarming because one of our two great political parties is anti the rights we gained. >> you are saying the republican party? >> actually, it's not republicans who also don't agree with the party platform. it's the many kaszs former democrats, very extremist right wing folks who have taken over the republican party. no more could nixon get nominated or goldwater who was pro-choice. it's become very extreme on the issues of women. it's alarming to me. if people get mad at one party, they vote for the other. i'm hoping real republicans will take their party back. >> you believe there's been war on women

there was gloria steinem, ellie smeal. we've grown up on shirley chisholm, kim gandy, patricia ireland, terry o'neil, harriet tubman before them, ida b. wells-barnett before them, ella baker before them. all of these are women who have fought too many battles for us to go back. so, we won't go back. it's time for us to take our own stand and stand the ground for women and insist that we won't go back for any reason. so, we've got to get it on when we leave this conference today. we can't wait for the summer. we can't wait for november. we've got to get it together now. i want you to know that it is time that we understand that all, each of our interests is somehow related to all of our interests. so, the far right, as i said earlier, may well have shot the first shot, but it's the one who's still standing when the last shot is fired. and women, we intend to be there because we are a team. thank you. i love you. god bless you. [ cheers and applause ] >> i forget that e. faye is also an ordained minister. >> can you tell? >>

i had actually a unique relationship to the business, because when i -- bv i caefore in, gloria steinemn to give a downbeat i never thought about it. i just went about mied by, did what i did. and somehow found a niche in my businesser i was accepted, treated with respect, given place where other women might not have been. i can't explain why, other than my confidence and my lack of -- >> inknha bigs. >> the fear of being held back wasn't in my psyche. where it was difficult was my home life. i valued myself in my business. i didn't value myself enough in my home life. and you know i had -- that's a -- a lot of that's in the book but i had to navigate things like child care, for example, when i -- >> right. >> i didn't have child care, and we didn't have money in the beginning either, so you know, i had -- if -- if i could get the kids to my mother's, that would work, she lived far away, or my grandmother, she lived closer. if i couldn't i had to bring them to work with me basically. and i was in a business where you can do that, but what do women who do can't? that's more my focus in t

he points out that gloria steinem was dismissed kay bailey hutchison as a female impersonator. this goes on both ends. guest: women can be as brutal to women as men. focus on the issues that everybody cares about. host: margaret is on the phone from new jersey. caller: you have yourself in a pickle this morning. i would like to concur with the lady from chicago. if you listen to hillary's it was thatonsents, women of means have an easier time deciding whether or not to stay at home as opposed to those women who have to work outside the home and care for their children. i have another comment, if i may. this fellow from north carolina, i would like to know if he commentss ted nugent's reflected of romney's views. thank you. host: thank you, margaret. guest: the obama campaign did that this time. host: please ask, the first families have been poor. the president talked about this week, a growing up in a single family. laura bush broke up central texas and a middle-class family. guest: a great number of them. abraham lincoln. his wife tried to prove to the country and prove to the

gloria steinem, 20 years ago, wrote this article called "revaluing economics." and she talked about the two invisible resources that everything else is built upon, our care work, or the work that it takes to raise families, and the earth, the planet's natural resources. and those two things have been unprotected, undervalued, and invisibilized as the resources that make everything else possible. and we need to fundamentally revalue those elements of our society. including making care work more affordable for every american who needs it, making the actual hiring of childcare and long-term care, elder care workers more affordable for american families. and making sure that the workers who do that work are protected and can earn a living wage and support their own families. >> you both have been doing this a long time now, i know. and you're not even 40 yet. how did you get started as organizers? sarita? >> yeah, well, i -- you know, i came to this work really watching my parents, i would say. my family immigrated here. i immigrated when i was a baby to rochester,

then i started reading and schooling and educating and i read from the works of gloria steinem, alice walker, sonia sanchez, and i learned you know what? we don't need permission. we don't need permission. others need permission from us. >> to add on to that, i talked about welfare as a story to get people to think, what ever, but also why teach the book as a movement towards peace. at the end she had discovered piece. the book you are carrying with you are the books that we responded to be and we have been in a place called america, we came out and exciting but you must never let people bring you to their level. sometimes i come off stage and someone will ask a question and i hear the negativity. and i would have said okay, whatever, right? but i would say excuse me, my brother or sister, could you please tell me how i have offended you? and if you do that then maybe you can correct it because you must always make that person come to where you are to read you must never go to where you are and one of the things we begin to truly understand is that from miniet on from joe on whatever

there was gloria steinem, we have grown up. patricia ireland's, harriet tubman, qaeda b. wells, all of these are women who have fought too many battles for us to go back. we won't go back. it is time for us to take our own stand and stand the ground for women. insist that we won't go back for any reason. we have to get it on. we can't wait for the summer. we can't wait for november. we have to get it together now. of what you to know that if its time we understand that each of our interests is somehow related to all of our interests. the far right, as i said earlier, may well have been shocked -- shot the first shot, but it is the one who is still standing when the last shot is fired. women, we intend to be there because we are a team. thank you and i love you. god bless. [applause] >> also an ordained minister. indignation. we are going to throw open -- we have a little time, not much for q&a. the reason that i stop some of the candid it's that or hear as a nonprofit organization until basically we want to keep it in the philosophical range, especially right here. encour

then i started reading and schooling and educating and i read from the works of gloria steinem, alice walker, sonia sanchez, and i learned you know what? we don't need permission. we don't need permission. others need permission from us. >> to add on to that, i talked about welfare as a story to get people to think, what ever, but also why teach the book as a movement towards peace. at the end she had discovered piece. the book you are carrying with you are the books that we responded to be and we have been in a place called america, we came out and exciting but you must never let people bring you to their level. sometimes i come off stage and someone will ask a question and i hear the negativity. and i would have said okay, whatever, right? but i would say excuse me, my brother or sister, could you please tell me how i have offended you? and if you do that then maybe you can correct it because you must always make that person come to where you are to read you must never go to where you are and one of the things we begin to truly understand is that from miniet on from joe on whatever

there was gloria steinem, shirley chism, there's kim gandy, patricia ireland, terry o'neill, harriet tubman before them, ella baker before them. all of these are women who who e fought too many battles for us to go back. so we won't go back. it's time for us to take our own stand and stand the ground for women and insist that we won't go back for any reason. so we've got to get it on when we leave this conference today. we can't wait for the summer. we can't wait for november. we've got to get it together now. i want you to know that it is time that we understand that all, each of our interests is somehow related to all of our interest. so the far right, as i said earlier, may well have shot the first shot, but it's the one who's still standing when the last shot is fired. and, women, we intend to be there because we are a team. thank you, i love you, god bless you. [cheers and applause] >> i forget that e. faye is also an ordained minister. [laughter] and you can hear her voice ringing there in indignation. we're going to throw open, we have a little time -- not much -- for q&a. the