In the beginning of this year, Emma Watson started up a feminist book club on Goodreads.com hoping to unite and empower women everywhere. Most notably known for her acting, Watson now works with United Nations Women – a relatively new branch in the UN that was created in 2010 with the hope of empowering women and supporting gender equality. Watson started feverishly reading any material about gender equality she could get her hands on, and is creating her book club based on those readings. The book she picked to start out her club was My Life on the Road, written by Gloria Steinem.   Â
My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem is an uplifting and comforting book. This book starts off with a powerful dedication to Dr. John Sharpe who “took the considerable risk of referring for an abortion a twenty-two-year-old American on her way to India.” All the doctor asked in return was that the woman did what she wanted to do with her life. At the end of the dedication Gloria tells Dr. Sharpe “I’ve done the best I could with my life. This book is for you.”Â
My Life on the Road is, first and foremost, a memoir of Gloria Steinem’s travels – starting in her 1940s childhood – and a self-described “story of… decades of travel leading out from the hub of home.” Steinem outlines the three purposes she had in mind when writing this book as to share the part of her life that is most hidden away but also the most important to her, to inspire her readers to spend time on the road, and to simply share stories.
This book left me wanting to change the world. While reading about her travels, I felt like I was engaging with Gloria and her partners. I was listening to the stories from the talking circles, I was in the hot basements voting for change, and I was fighting her battles alongside with her. I felt a sisterhood with the women I was reading about; their determination and endless effort towards their goals was incredibly inspiring and it always made me feel connected and supported by these women even though I don’t know them and they don’t know me. The best part of it all was that I never felt intimidated by the magnitude of their accomplished. As Gloria says, “when humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses.”Â
No one can lose from the feelings of support and power this book offers to its readers. We learn so much from Gloria Steinem’s book about overcoming odds and challenges that women have faced long after suffrage, long after the civil rights movement, even long after the first woman was given a job in the U.S. government. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to young women everywhere who need a little encouragement or a reaffirmation of their strength.Â