GLORIA STEINEM'S PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

"What my male colleagues meant by revolution was taking over the army and the radio stations. ...That’s very small potatoes. What we mean by revolution is changing much more than that.... It means changing the way we think, the way we relate to each other." - Gloria Steinem, in Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times.

Over decades few women or men, for that matter, have the fortitude, brains, wit, presence, and ability to continue the fight for a cause, and not be replaced in their role of leadership.

Read Steinem's brief oral biography, Particular Passions: Gloria Steinem, first published 30 years ago and now e-published for all platforms.

It is thrilling to read how much Gloria, with her legions of colleagues and followers has accomplished, and how far our society has come.

Available on Amazon and Apple  --  At $0.99, a bargain.

GLORIA STEINEM IN HER OWN VOICE: THEN AND NOW

Gloria Steinem will be celebrated on TV tonight February 2nd, 2013, in a documentary. In Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times, her “voice” was recorded in an oral biography in the late 70’s when the women’s movement was only just becoming a part of the mainstream. 

Today the book has been e-published for all platforms.

How fortunate that we can hear her tonight, and then compare her “voice” in the brief chapter from 35 years ago to learn about a historical time as it was actually happening.

You wont be disappointed. As one of the many stellar reviews said: "I have never enjoyed an oral history book more than this one." — Sojourner

The unabridged Particular Passions collection, along with twelve of some of its most compelling chapters (featuring the stories of Bella Abzug, Julia Child, Agnes de Mille, Betty Friedan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tatyana Grosman, Grace Murray Hopper, Billie Jean King, Dorothy Canning Miller, Louise Nevelson, Gloria Steinem, and Diana Vreeland) are released for e-readers at Amazon and Apple. The chapter is $0.99.

Enjoy one chapter, two, and I hope you’ll read the book. The women’s stories will amaze and inspire you!

RUTH BADER GINSBURG - A CHAMPION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS

“When I graduated from law school in 1959, it was not possible to move legislators or judges toward recognition of a sex-equality principle.” — From the brief chapter and oral biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice, in 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times.'

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/7grtcd6     A great read - only $0.99

The book, Particular Passions, profiles forty-six pioneering American women of the 20th Century from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics, among other disciplines and is available now for all e-reading devices. The first of its kind, Particular Passions identifies the women who had an historic impact on women's rights from the 1920s to the late 1970s. These oral biographies recorded in the 1970s, capture the experience and wisdom of the women who opened doors for all of us.

The progression of the stories echoes the evolution of life for women in America. Published to critical acclaim in 1981, Particular Passions is included in more than 800 academic institutions and government libraries worldwide.

Gerda Lerner was the first person to put “women’s studies” on the map, establishing women’s history as an important part of a university’s curriculum.  I was honored to have her use my book as the core of one of her classes.

An excerpt from the many stellar reviews: "This is a wonderful book... The book is recommended reading for anyone — no matter what political or sociological background—who wants to know more about living history." — Santa Cruz Sentinel

For the complete Particular Passions: Amazon Apple

A PROUD ALLIANCE: RIVALS HILLARY AND BARACK

"All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion, which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world." — Benjamin Franklin.

Obama turned to his fiercest rival in an all out war for the presidency, and made her, Hillary Clinton, the most valued and visible member of his cabinet — Secretary of State. Modeling himself after Lincoln, who cleverly employed his rivals to form his team, Obama gained stature for America and himself through Hillary’s diplomacy, political skill, and relentless hard work and personal support.

One person’s achievement and success, draws upon the collaboration of many. The wise, like Obama and Lincoln draw upon the most qualified.

Hillary’s rise to the top of the political scene and a possible run for the presidency in 2016 is a reflection of the gradual emergence of women “seeping” into the upper echelons of power. Similarly, in the world of big business, Marissa Mayer’s becoming CEO of Yahoo is a giant step forward… for all women.

As Gloria Steinem said in Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times, “It wasn’t until late sixties, early seventies, that real feminist statements began to be made… This last decade (the ‘70’s) is so mind-blowing and exciting and angering, because we have realized we are living in a sexual caste system and it’s unjust…This decade has been about consciousness-raising and building a majority movement …for the basic issues of justice for women."

It is women like Gloria Steinem, collaborating with scores of others, who have finally enabled women to be perceived as equally qualified as men.  Now women are just starting to have the opportunity in shaping the world in which they live, an irony, considering there are more women than men.

Read a brief chapter, Steinem’s oral biography, from Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times, available for $.99. It’s a bargain and great read.

Amazon Apple

MOTHERHOOD - AN EVOLVING ROLE

"Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur." — Alvin Toffler.

Madonna and Child by Ghirlandaio.  

The cult for Madonna and child, seen in illustrious altarpieces and frescoes, in every church throughout Europe, started in the early 13th century.  A thousand years later at Christmas time the cult is still preserved on holiday cards.   But the venerated images of the past no longer reflect life as we live it now.

Betty Friedan spoke about her focus, her work, her life…and also her children in Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times: “my public life…has been exciting…my frivolous life has been fun too...and my three kids..they may think I would have been a better mother if it hadn't been for the women's movement, but I don't think so.”

Read the chapter, an oral biography of Betty Friedan, who fueled the women’s liberation movement that continues today around the globe. For just $.99 be inspired. Learn from her challenges, accomplishments and mistakes.

As one review said: "One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction." — K.T.Maclay

This chapter is available on Amazon and Apple.

WOMEN AND THE LAW

Thetis (personification of divine justice) Rhamnous. 300 BC

Raphael's workshop - Fresco completed from sketches after his death 1520

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Perception of women in the law has taken centuries to evolve. Thetis, (personification of divine justice), was sculpted by Rhamnous in 300 BC.

Justice, again was represented as a woman in Raphael’s fresco in 1520. It took another 2,300 years for a real woman, Sandra Day O’Connor to be appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981, since its’ inception in 1790, followed by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993, Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, and Elena Kagan in 2010.

Read a brief chapter of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times,"  whose contributions to civil and women’s rights continue today in the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court, Amazon or  Apple for only $.99.

Ginsburg looked back on women and the law in Particular Passions and said, “ I started law school in 1956, one of nine women in an entering class of over five hundred.  We wondered why there were only nine, and asked a faculty member. “Is it discrimination?” we inquired. “Certainly not,” he said. “From the large gray middle of the applicant pile we try to take people who have something unusual, something different about them. If you are a bull fiddle player, for example, you would get a plus, and if you’re a woman you would get a plus.”

As one reviewer said of Particular Passions, “One of  those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction." — K.T. Maclay.

Available on Amazon  and Apple.

In his auspicious inaugural address today, Obama said  "When times change, so must we." Real action, and the opportunity for equality for all, will follow these inspired words... hopefully.

GLORIA STEINEM'S "VOICE" EMPOWERS WOMEN

When You Educate A Girl You Transform a Nation: A concept hundreds of years in the making.

Women are being transformed from gaining power by having visions and hearing “voices,” to marrying into power, to finally listening to their own inner voices thereby becoming empowered.

In 1412, a young 13-year-old, illiterate peasant girl, “Joan of Arc,” as she became known, heard "voices" which commanded her to aid the Dauphin, Charles and see him crowned as the King of France.

Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Catherine II by Fyodor Rokotov

Three hundred years later “Catherine the Great (1729 -1796), came to power in Russia through her marriage to Peter III, following his assassination. "Under her reign, Russia was revitalized, recognized as one of the great powers of Europe, and often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire." — Wikipedia, summarized.

In 2013, six hundred years after Joan of Arc, women are able to rely on their own inner voice, due to “visionary” women like Gloria Steinem who dedicated themselves to feminism and other movements for social justice.

In Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped our Times, Gloria Steinem said “I think the revolutionary role of a writer is to make language that makes coalition possible, language that makes us see things in a new way.”

The oral biography of Gloria Steinem is available for $.99 on Amazon or Apple.

Particular Passions identifies 46 pioneering women from the 1920s to the late 1970s who helped transform women’s roles in society from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics among many other disciplines.

"Every woman owes it to herself to look up Particular Passions—borrow the volume from your public library. Or, better still, buy it and put it with your favorite novel or poetry collection to sustain you. Every story in the book is an inspiration. This book is a joy and a tonic." — Pioneer Press and Dispatch.

ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE -1921-2013, AMERICA'S MOST INFLUENTIAL ARCHITECTURAL CRITIC

"We shape our buildings;  thereafter they shape us." — Winston Churchill.

“What I’m trying to do with criticism is not a simple, one-track thing. I am very concerned with my own feelings about the subjects I write about. I am concerned with the quality of the cities we’re building, with how they serve people and how they contribute to the arts that are involved in building them...

My first consideration is to meet a set of standards that is terribly important to me. My next consideration is to share those standards with people who should be concerned and who should care who are concerned and do care. As for criticism, analyzing and discussing how these various subjects or buildings or actions fit into those standards is apt to engender a sense of pleasure or a sense of outrage, all of which comes through in the writing.”

– Ada Louise Huxtable, in Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times.

Particular Passions profiles forty-six American women who forged successful careers in fields that had traditionally been open only to men. The women were pioneers in the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics, among other disciplines. They overcame countless obstacles to build fulfilling lives for themselves, and in so doing opened doors for new generations of women, not just in America, but around the world.

The collective power of these oral biographies will inspire women, and men, to forge meaningful lives and empower them to pursue dreams of their own.

From one of the many stellar reviews: “Every woman owes it to herself to look up Particular Passions — borrow the volume from your public library. Or, better still, buy it and put it with your favorite novel or poetry collection to sustain you. Every story in the book is an inspiration. This book is a joy and a tonic.” — Pioneer Press and Dispatch.

Ada Louise Huxtable's oral biography is included in "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped Our Times."  The complete book and 12 individual chapters: Amazon http://amzn.to/UH8KaH , Apple http://bit.ly/S7rMDr

For more information on Particular Passions: http://tinyurl.com/bge2lwd

ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE – ARCHITECTURAL CRITIC FOR THE AGES

“You start by saying, “This building is good and this is why. This is worth caring about.” That basic understanding and appreciation is what criticism must carry above all. Then, what you do about it is next. I am trying to inform people about what the issues are and how to deal with them, and they’re very complicated issues.” - Ada Louise Huxtable Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times.

"Ada Louise Huxtable (1921 –2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. In 1970 she was awarded the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. The esteemed architecture critic Paul Goldberger, also a Pulitzer Prize-winner for architectural criticism, said of Huxtable: "Before Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture was not a part of the public dialogue." "She was a great lover of cities, a great preservationist and the central planet around which every other critic revolved," said architect Robert A. M. Stern, dean of the Yale University School of Architecture 2013" - Wikipedia

Particular Passions: "Tantalizing glimpses into the lives of women who have not only made a living at their own “particular passion,” but have become well known, even world renowned, for doing work they love." — Christian Science Monitor

Ada Louise Huxtable's oral biography is included in "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped Our Times." available on Amazon and Apple.

Particular Passions: "Tantalizing glimpses into the lives of women who have not only made a living at their own “particular passion,” but have become well known, even world renowned, for doing work they love." — Christian Science Monitor

DIANA VREELAND CREATED FASHION AS A "HERITAGE SITE"

"A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic." — George Bernard Shaw

Vreeland documented this remarkable fact, Exhibiting styles at the Met with great tact.

Her flair and ability to attract huge masses, Shows were so special we had to have passes.

Vreeland is a fashion icon, whose life is documented in the recent blockbuster, “The Eye has to Travel.  Her seminal exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art elevated fashion to fine art.

Do yourself a favor and buy a brief chapter of her life from Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Have Shaped our Times - a bargain at $.99.

"One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction." — K.T. Maclay

Particular Passions is available on Amazon and Apple.