Marlo Thomas on her friendship with Gloria Steinem

I’ve got a busy day ahead of me with a freelance writing assignment among other things, and I hadn’t planned to post this morning, but when I saw this tribute by Marlo Thomas to Gloria Steinem, who will be featured this evening in the HBO documentary, Gloria, in her own words, I couldn’t resist.

Incidentally, I saw Gloria and Marlo in person in Chicago in 1980 when I joined thousands of other women to march in Grant Park in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Marlo writes:

In the forty years I've known Gloria Steinem, we have been confidantes, soul mates and sisters. And only once can I remember feeling any worry about our friendship. I had fallen in love with a white-haired Irishman, and had decided to marry the guy. This was not going to be easy to break to my soul mate.

Until that moment, Gloria and I had always been philosophically synced. We were two unmarried women who were obviously not man-haters, which is how many people at the time tried to portray feminists. We were women who had loving relationships with men, and shared a passion about women's freedom -- and the concept of marriage just never fit in the equation for either of us.

In fact, both of us would often get mail from women who'd write, "I refer to you whenever my mother nags me about settling down. I say to her, 'Well, Gloria Steinem and Marlo Thomas aren't married, and they're not crazy!'"

But in 1977, I met Phil, and the idea of marriage surprisingly seemed possible for me.

But there was still Gloria -- and that had me worried. So the night before my wedding, I wrote her a long letter, pouring out my feelings, and assuring her that walking down the aisle would never mean walking away from all we believed in. 

"This will be the greatest test of our sisterhood," I wrote. "We've always been a support for each other on this issue, and I hope now you won't feel abandoned by me."

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