Gloria Steinem on the Importance of Face-to-Face Activism

Long before she started Ms. magazine and blazed trails for women's rights, Gloria Steinem was well acquainted with life on the road. She and her older sister, Susan, spent most of their childhood crisscrossing the country in a family trailer with their mother, Ruth, and their father, Leo, whom Gloria describes as a "rootless wanderer."

But it wasn't until the '60s, when she couldn't get published and emphatically wanted to champion the burgeoning feminist movement, that Gloria fell in love with the open road and what it could do for political activism.

"I ended up going out with a friend on the road to speak, and that led to, you know, years of on-the-road organizing," Gloria says.

Gloria says that although she doesn't mean to devalue other forms of activism, something special happens when you are in the room with other people—an exchange that wouldn't be possible via the printed page or a screen. "It's really true that the hormones that allow us to empathize with each other are only produced when we're together in all five senses," she says.

Watch as Gloria explains why there's no substitute for being physically present when you want to reach out to other people.