My Life on the Road

Gloria Steinem recounts the struggles and joys she found in her literal and metaphorical journeys as a feminist leader and journalist. Debra Winger brings Steinem's words to life with a tone of quiet passion. Her leisurely pace and conversational tone convey Steinem's weathered wisdom. Winger's patient tone and pacing lend thoughtful strength to passages of conviction. When reading Steinem's observations on oppression, Winger's tone is appropriately solemn and saddened, but she never allows her voice to be steeped in defeat. In this way, she embodies Steinem's steady, hopeful persistence in her fight for women's equality. A foreword read by Steinem herself adds a personal touch to an inspiring narration. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 10, 2015
“If you want people to listen to you,” iconic women’s rights activist Steinem underscores in this powerfully personal yet universally appealing memoir, “you have to listen to them.” And that’s exactly what she’s done for the past four decades, crisscrossing the country in search of inspiring women and women—and men—to inspire. Steinem, a staunch advocate for reproductive rights and equal rights for women, long before either was fashionable in the public eye, writes candidly for the first time about her itinerant childhood spent with a father who itched to be constantly in motion and mother who gave up her own happiness for the sake of others. Vowing to distance herself from both her mother’s dependent lifestyle and her father’s peripatetic ways, Steinem ended up doing exactly what she never imagined: being a public speaker who’s constantly on the move. Highlights include her role in the 1977 National Women’s Conference—“It was my first glimpse of how little I knew—and how much I wanted to learn”—and her accounts of conversations with taxi drivers across the country. Throughout her travels, whether visiting small college campuses in the South or attending a 1971 Harvard Law School dinner where her equality speech was met with animosity, Steinem strives to create positive, meaningful change. Her inviting prose is easy and enjoyable to read, even when the subject matter veers towards the painful.