Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem Praise Women in Media
Masha Leon, Jane Fonda and Sally Fields Image by Karen Leon
“Good for you honey!” teased Jane Fonda — her arm around my shoulder, with Sally Field listening in — during our chat as I commented on a common sexist workplace put-down, which I addressed in a [1979] Working Woman article “Please don’t Call Me Honey.”
Academy Award-winner and Women’s Media Center co-founder Fonda (whose father Henry Fonda starred in “Young Mr. Lincoln”) and Academy Award-winner Field who starred as Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” were amidst the crush at the October 8 Women’s Media Awards at 583 Park Avenue as photographers were angling for shots of Gloria Steinem, Christiane Amanpour, Lily Tomlin, Gayle King, Kathleen Turner and more…
“Bless you! Bless you!” host Tomlin — veteran TV comedienne, actress and producer, remembered fondly from groundbreaking TV comedy series “Laugh-In”— greeted the 400 plus media women movers and shakers. “How many of you feel that your parents never understood you?” asked Tomlin. “My mother told me — it turned out not to be true — that ‘only tramps get their ears pierced’…’whatever makes you happy makes me happy’ [and] that ‘people in Washington wouldn’t be there if they didn’t know what they were doing.” There were hoots and hollers.
“I worry about Washington, I worry about the world…[and] I know there are bloggers here tonight and imagine you are tweeting when I am speaking. I want you to hold your applause bloggers, because I don’t want anything to interfere with your thumbs. If it were not for the Feminist movement, you female bloggers would be called blogerettes.” Tomlin interjected soberly: “It’s hard to realize that women are 51% of the population yet hold only 3% of the high powered media jobs. And I ask you, how much of that 3% is Oprah! And I wonder too if more of us are watching reality shows instead of doing reality checks.”
Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, presented the Women’s Media Center Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award to Teheran-born Christiane Amanpour. “Pat Mitchell was my boss [and] did a wonderful documentary about the reform movement that got me banned for five years. But, hey! That’s what it’s all about.” She proclaimed: “No matter the success individuals have, it is so important to put back as an investment into the next generations.”
Julie Burton president of the Women’s Media Center, announced that President Obama will give Gloria Steinem “who struggled for political and social equality and justice for six decades” the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
