on DOING great WORK
ONE OF THE STAND-OUT figures of second-wave feminism, Gloria Steinem has been an activist all her life. She co-founded Ms. magazine, helped create the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Women’s Media Center, and serves as the chair of Equality Now. For Steinem, her life’s work sits at that elusive intersection of passion, profit and meaning, but it wasn’t an easy road to get there. Here’s how she did it.
There are few things in life as exciting as discovering we can do something that people value. Remember the first time you mowed the lawn, shovelled snow or did some other service for a neighbour and were thanked and paid for it? That’s the feeling of working of our own free will, doing something as well as we can, being rewarded for it and learning by practice how to do it better.
If we could just hang on to these principles for the rest of our lives, we would be a lot happier. To quote Marge Piercy in her great poem “To Be Of Use”:
The pitcher cries for water to carry And a person for work that is real.
In the world of rich versus poor, the poor obviously
