Those types of assignments tended to go to men. But no one would let me write what I really wanted to write about – politics. When the money ran out, I wrote columns for several Indian newspapers to earn a living – people seemed interested to hear a foreigner’s view on their country.Īged 23, I moved to New York and continued writing, mainly profiles and humorous articles for women’s magazines and The New York Times. I studied politics and government at high school, then won a scholarship to travel around India. They were funny and I loved the magic of rhyme. I read whatever I could lay my hands on: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys – and I was particularly fond of AA Milne’s poems. I didn’t spend a full year in school until I was 11, so books became my world. Growing up, my father was an antiques dealer so we lived in a caravan and travelled across the US for long spells. She was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama, and lives in New York I want to be as impatient as Gloria it gets things done.Gloria, 82, is an activist, author and journalist who founded the first feminist women’s magazine, Ms, in 1971. My Life on the Road is inspiring and, hopefully, for all who read it, completely and utterly insidious. It was Steinem who pointed out, after all, that the personal is political and the political in turn is personal. She discloses her stories as if we all live by her rules of conduct. This intimate and beautifully written book exemplifies her profound devotion to justice. For example, she talks about working with Hilary Clinton and the extraordinary means by which people showed their hatred for Clinton – until they met her. And you can’t be a long-distance runner unless you have some inner strength.’ She counsels us to look after ourselves, to remain alert to discrimination, and to heed other stories. She says, ‘We need to be long-distance runners to make a real social revolution.

There are vignettes of people she has met, taxi drivers she has sat with, students she has argued with and media shock jocks she has talked with. Her accounts are good-natured and often very funny.

Showing tremendous irony, humour and vigour, Steinem reveals her childhood to her life, at age 81, now. She has constantly been on the move (thus the imaginative title) and this book chronicles her travels from her first experience of social activism among women in India to her work as a journalist in the 1960s from the founding of Ms Magazine to the historic 1977 National Women’s Conference. Recognised and admired worldwide for her social activism in the field of women’s rights, Steinem’s opus has been to record observations that make sense of our shared experience as women. She is a tireless, considered narrator of hope and kindness. She has travelled the world to bring our stories to a global platform. We know that she has been supporting us, urging us and demanding us to speak up for decades now.

Gloria steinem on the road