CREDIT: GREGG KULIK (COVER), RANDOM HOUSE BOOKS (PUBLISHER)
Gloria Steinem imparts some wisdom on why we should keep moving forward.

While breakfasting by herself in a quiet lodge just outside of the South Dakota Badlands, Gloria Steinem was approached by a rough-looking biker couple donning chains, tattoos and leather pants. Suddenly, the female biker started to gush over how much Steinem’s work has meant to her and her husband over the years.

The encounter impressed upon Steinem a valuable lesson that could only have been taught by the open road: “What seems to be one thing from a distance is very different close up.”

In case you were not aware, Gloria Steinem is one of the most predominant faces of modern feminism. Coming into recognition during the ’60s and ’70s, she is the sociopolitical activist and journalist responsible for co-founding Ms. Magazine in the early ’70s, the circulation of which is still thriving today. She writes candidly and intelligibly on issues concerning gender, race and class and has fearlessly generated notable public discourse upon numerous inequalities.

Steinem has built her career upon her work as a writer, and also a speaker, albeit a reluctant one in the beginning. In her latest book, My Life on the Road, she recounts how her personal adventures whilst traversing the American landscape helped to shape her politics and intentions.

She recalls how, despite her natural aversion to public speaking, she was compelled to know what the open road had to offer an intrepid activist in search of an audience. After all, she started her career during an era that was casually dismissive of divergent female voices, and powerful male editors would allot her only so much space within the parameters of print.

Devoid of any such constriction or censorship, it was only the road that afforded her the opportunity to communicate freely with others and understand what she could do to serve them.

“Gradually, I became the last thing on earth I would ever have imagined: a public speaker and gatherer of groups. And this brought an even bigger reward: public listening. It was listening that taught me there would be readers for a national feminist magazine, no matter what the publishing experts said.”

Descriptions of Steinem’s many encounters with notable figures at notable events are bound together by a common thread that encourages readers to be as active as possible in what they believe in. Steinem made waves not by anonymously writing comments behind the safety of a computer screen, but by actually prompting face-to-face conversation with the people whose lives she wanted to change.

The book imbues that above all, activists should never stop learning. The open road is a state of mind, and its end is altogether unknown. Opening ourselves to unfamiliar situations and experiences is the ideal, if not only way to broaden our perspectives. For those willing to take the trip, My Life on the Road is a great place to start.