Legendary feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem said she “overestimated our democracy” when it came to settling the debate over women’s reproductive rights on Tuesday’s episode of “The View.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked if Steinem was surprised that the debate around issues like abortion were still raging today.
“You know, I would have been surprised, I think earlier in the movement because I thought that if we had the majority support of most Americans that the laws would change and it would be okay,” Steinem surmised. “I overestimated our democracy, let me put it that way.”
Steinem also added that she does not believe being a feminist and being pro-life are mutually exclusive. “If you’re pro-life for yourself,” she said. “I mean, you can say you’re the decision maker over your own self. You can’t say it for other women.”
A leading voice of the feminist movement going back all the way to the 1960’s, Steinem rejected the notion of so-called “anti-feminist” women.
“We’ve all been born into a culture in which there are a feeling that men and women are not equal, one group is dominant and one is passive,” she mused.
“We’ve been born into a racist culture. We’re all struggling with it in various ways, and if they announce it they are just telling you that they really believe those hierarchies are true which of course they are not true,” she continued. “We made them up. They are not true.”