What does feminism mean?
Feminism is fundamentally about self respect and respect for others. It's not saying women are more important, just not less important.
What advice do you have for young women?
Do not listen to me, listen to yourselves. I mean that in the most serious way; each of us is a unique being who through a combination of millennia, heredity, and environment that could never happen before, could never happen again. we each have a voice inside us that tells us what we love to do so much we forget what time it is...so trust that voice and us older folks are here to support you in doing what that voice tells you to do.
What is your favorite book?
If I could only pick one, it would be The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It shows us that human transformation is always possible, despite cruelty and hierarchy, it has all the depth and philosophy of any great novel and is accessible to everyone, it takes place on two continents and explains colonialism better than most history books. And because it allows its characters to change, it makes us believe we can, too.
What is the relationship between culture and politics?
I still think there is an impulse to define what happens to men as politics and what happens to women as culture.
Why do you fight for reproductive freedom?
The attempts to oppose reproductive freedom are long, violent and current. Male control of reproduction and women's bodies is the first step in every hierarchy. Equality between men and women – staring with our ability to control our own bodies – is the beginning of democracy. Where ever there is a power system based on race, caste, class or ethnicity, women don't have reproductive freedom. To perpetuate all those hierarchies based on visible difference, society has to control who has children with whom. That's why sexism and racism are intertwined – and can only be uprooted together.
What are some good books to read if I want to learn about the feminist movement?
For fueling this diverse and global movement, I think first of anthologies: Robin Morgan’s Sisterhood Is Powerful, then Sisterhood Is Global, and later, Sisterhood Is Forever; All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave, by Barbara Smith and others; and Gloria Anzaldua and Cherríe Moraga’s This Bridge Called My Back.
Who is your personal hero and why?
Bella Abzug is my personal hero. Without the aid of the civil rights or feminist movements – before either was nationally visible – she defended black citizens in the south as a lawyer with so little support that she had to sleep in the train station. That she became a pioneer woman lawyer was a miracle in itself. She also helped to start the peace movement and the modern women's liberation movement. More than any other leader, she had a world vision and the tactics to go with it. Her international activism transformed the U.N. conferences on women, and she is now better recognized in other countries than in her own. She was a touchstone of personal and political wisdom I and many others could not do without. She was truly unique.
What advice do you have for feminists and organizers?
Telling each other our stories is the single most revolutionary act in every way...change comes from telling the truth and knowing that you're not alone.
Some final thoughts…
If we raised even one generation of children without violence, we have no idea what might be possible.
When children say, “It’s not fair” and, “You are not the boss of me,” they already have the core of every social justice movement.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, but you think it’s a pig – it’s a pig. Trust your instinct.