Michele Landsberg began as a "blue jean rebel." Chafing at the confines of late‑1950s sexism, she found her voice at Chatelaine in the '70s and then spent more than 25 years writing passionate and unapologetically activist columns for the Toronto Star. Writing the Revolution is a fascinating look back at those columns and at Michele's role as the high priestess of Canadian feminism. Her unwavering support for the rights, well‑being, and safety of women and children has served as a powerful force for social change. An inspirational read, Writing the Revolution is also a cautionary tale for those who feel that feminism as a movement need no longer exist.
For 25 years, two-time National Newspaper Award-winning journalist Michele Landsberg wrote a highly influential column in The Toronto Star, recording and interpreting history from the front lines of the feminist movement. Her writing showed a fearless advocacy on behalf of women and children, peace and pluralism, human rights and social justice. Writing the Revolution is a collection of her key columns. With her trademark blend of kindness, toughness, bluntness and humour, Michele reflects on when she was right, when she was wrong, and what was happening behind the scenes. She also hails the passionate new generation of feminists working to see that the revolution continues.
Michele Landsberg
Michele Landsberg began her career with The Globe and Mail in the 1960s. She joined Chatelaine Magazine in the 1970s, under the editorship of leading feminist Doris Anderson, before moving to the Toronto Star. Her time as a columnist for the Star spanned twenty-five years and won her two National Newspaper Awards. She is also the recipient of the Governor-General's Persons' Medal for her tireless advocacy on behalf of women. She is the author of three best-selling books: Women and Children First, Michele Landsberg’s Guide to Children’s Books and This is New York, Honey! Michele lives in Toronto with her husband, Stephen Lewis. She continues her work as an activist, and is a regular reviewer of children’s literature on CBC Radio.
Excerpt from Writing the Revolution
When feminist superstar Gloria Steinem came to town in
August 1978, I was ecstatic to get a chance to interview her. Gloria
not only spoke our feminist truths with wit and infinitely quotable
clarity, she also was a living refutation of the often-voiced idea that
feminists were only soured “old maids” who were too ugly to “get a
man,” a presumably devastating sexual insult hurled indiscriminately
at any woman who spoke up, whether she was ugly, single, or not.
Gloria, though, was so obviously beautiful, calm, and assured, with
enough female confidence to masquerade as a Playboy bunny in
order to get a news story, that this accusation instantly died on the
lips of any would-be slanderer. She had the added glamour of being
a founding writer for New York Magazine and is still, fifty years later,
billed as “the most famous feminist in the world.”
EQUAL PAY IS STEINEM’S FINAL GOAL August 1978
A decade after she first flashed on the scene as a feminist spokeswoman,
Gloria Steinem can still dazzle us. Lucid, funny, at ease
but totally in control, the president of Ms. Magazine Corporation
seems to embody the growing-up and the staying power of the
movement.
In town to speak to the American Psychological Association
convention, she held a press conference yesterday at the Sheraton
Centre and leavened her remarks with rapid-fire one-liners:
“The most sophisticated argument against the feminist
movement is that men’s egos are too fragile. But,” she grins
devilishly, “we have more faith in men than that.”
“Militant? We’re not militant. The Pentagon is militant; we don’t
even have a helicopter.”
“A majority of the U.S. population agrees with all the major
issues of feminism…freedom of choice about abortion, equal pay,
daycare, equal opportunity. But that’s just in the opinion polls. I’m
not saying what they think when we move in next door. A black nuclear physicist
is always just a nigger in the south, you know, and
a competent woman is a bitch anywhere.”
The one-liners were just the spice, of course. Steinem’s
message is serious, her logic knife-sharp, and her intelligence
luminous. She looks out from behind her famous round granny
glasses and, far in the distance, she sees a bloodless revolution.
“When all women get equal pay, at last, that will be a
transformation of society, not just a simple reform. Equal pay, as
our opponents know all too well, means a massive redistribution of
wealth. Because right now the whole economy rests on the cheap
labour of millions of women. The average U.S. secretary is two
years better educated than the average boss.”
For those of us who feared the feminist movement was faltering,
Steinem brings a wry but bracing optimism.…
“…[T]he shift in attitudes on the part of the public has been
enormous, and that’s been an accomplishment of the movement.
And we have networks now, alternate structures that are nourishing
and supportive to women. We have more minority role models. And
the movement is more cohesive now than it’s ever been.”
“This is a revolution, and we’re in it for our lifetime.”
It was a revolution waged with words instead of swords,
and if we pushed back the obstacles in our path by the sheer force
of numbers, determination, and the obvious justice of our cause,
there was one barrier that remained and is in place to this day: the
obduracy of capitalist economics, which sees early childhood as
insignificant, high-quality childcare as a luxury, not an economic
and societal necessity, and the raising up of the human race as a
woman’s private problem.
Michele Landsberg began as a "blue jean rebel." Chafing at the confines of late‑1950s sexism, she found her voice at Chatelaine in the '70s and then spent more than 25 years writing passionate and unapologetically activist columns for the Toronto Star. Writing the Revolution is a fascinating look back at those columns and at Michele's role as the high priestess of Canadian feminism. Her unwavering support for the rights, well‑being, and safety of women and children has served as a powerful force for social change. An inspirational read, Writing the Revolution is also a cautionary tale for those who feel that feminism as a movement need no longer exist.
Michele Landsberg began her career with The Globe and Mail in the 1960s. She joined Chatelaine Magazine in the 1970s, under the editorship of leading feminist Doris Anderson, before moving to the Toronto Star. Her time as a columnist for the Star spanned twenty-five years and won her two National Newspaper Awards. She is also the recipient of the Governor-General's Persons' Medal for her tireless advocacy on behalf of women. She is the author of three best-selling books: Women and Children First, Michele Landsberg’s Guide to Children’s Books and This is New York, Honey! Michele lives in Toronto with her husband, Stephen Lewis. She continues her work as an activist, and is a regular reviewer of children’s literature on CBC Radio.