Jacquie Steingold

Biographical/Background Information

  • Born/grew up in Detroit, Michigan in a non-Jewish neighborhood
  • Second generation Jewish American
  • Still a resident of Detroit
  • Family was culturally Jewish
  • Was the first member of her family to go to college

Education

  • Undergraduate: Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Majored in sociology
  • Master’s in social work: Wayne State University

Career

  • Teacher at Wayne State and local community college and high schools
  • Currently: Teaches at Wayne County Community College, Wayne State University, and Sienna Heights High School

Issues/Activism

  • Participated in informal conscious raising groups as an undergraduate at Wayne State
  • Active in CORE and SNCC
  • Discrimination, civil rights, equality
  • One of the first VISTA (now AmeriCorps) volunteers in the U.S.
  • Divisions between black and white feminists
  • Pay equity, equal pay for equal work, reproductive rights, childcare, credit for women, abortion, clinic escorting, raising community’s consciousness of inequalities and feminist issues, marital rape, domestic abuse
  • Worked at Interim House one of the first domestic violence shelters in Michigan
  • Established first evening childcare center in Michigan
  • Childcare Coordinating Council
  • Michigan Women’s Liberation Movement (helped form)
  • NOW (Michigan) (helped form)
  • Serves on board of Michigan Women’s Forum
  • Served as president of Detroit NOW
  • Served on National NOW Board
  • spoke on a Ms. Cruise
  • Working to breakdown conception that NOW is a white, middle-class organization
  • Executive Director of YWCA 1989-1993
  • Veteran Feminists (those active since 1970)

Quotes

  • “[In the beginning] We were just angry and it was unfocused. Things were happening in out lives and we just needed to talk.”
  • “[I was] an isolated child of the 50s…. When I started Wayne State it was like the whole world began to open up.”
  • “I became frustrated with the licking-envelopes role that women were relegated to. There weren’t any women leaders and it seemed like the men liked it that way.”
  • “Black women weren’t welcomed equally into the early women’s movement.”
  • “The Seder celebrates the role of women in our history that wasn’t celebrated in our services or liturgy.”
  • “There was such an underground [abortion network] you’d be amazed – you write a letter and you just get a slip in the mail: a date, a time, and a place because it was all illegal.”
  • Roe passed in 1973 “the fact that women were forced to bear children that they weren’t ready to bear seemed very significant.”
  • “I saw [the care of] children as another obstacle to women to pursue careers and school.”
  • “I remember one woman pointing to her child and saying, ‘they would have wanted me to kill you.'”
  • “Domestic violence is terrorism in the home.”
  • “Having core values really underscores how you see the world, the Jewish value is that you can’t sit back, you have to participate, you have to do something to ameliorate that [injustice that you see].” “I had a part to play.”
  • “[Local feminist organizations] have provided me with a security blanket of like-minded women…It’s beyond the goals of our lives and the opportunities; we care about each other.”
  • Says of Freidan, “We embrace women leaders for their flaws.” She was “embarrassed by Freidan’s homophobia but never discounted her for it.”
  • “The media still paints us with a broad f-word stroke, [to them] abortion is still our only issue…We’re not good at getting our message out.”
  • “We have won many of the fights, but they’re chiseling away at reproductive rights.”
  • “[Because of the disparity in wages] I should really pay 69 cents for a loaf of bread; a man should pay the dollar.”

Advice: Be involved with something: your block, your community, the environment…

Definition of Feminism: Equal opportunities for men and women and equal access.

Jacquie Steingold – Interview Summary
Interview conducted on 16 March 2008

  • Born in Detroit, Michigan.
  • Very limited Jewish background, both parents were Jewish.
  • Mother was an immigrant from Russia.
  • Family was culturally Jewish, they lived in non-Jewish neighborhood, attended downtown Detroit synagogue for High Holidays.
  • Father owned a neighborhood department store.
  • Grew up in the city of Detroit not far from where she lives now.
  • Awareness of the feminist movement: used to meet with a group of women at a Jewish woman’s (Jessie Glaberman) house on the Eastside. (Note: Jessie Glaberman [1922-1981] was active in the labor, civil rights, and feminist movements. Her papers are collected at the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at the Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit.)
  • This group formed the Michigan Women’s Liberation Movement (the precursor of Michigan NOW).
  • “[In the beginning] We were just angry and it was unfocused. Things were happening in our lives and we just needed to talk.”
  • Helped start Michigan’s NOW chapter.
  • Began college at Wayne State in 1960.
  • Describes herself before college as “an isolated child of the 50s…. When I started Wayne State it was like the whole world began to open up.”
  • Judaism talks about caring about your neighborhood.
  • While at Wayne State she began to take note of discrimination against blacks.
  • Involved in Civil Rights Movement on WSU campus and in Detroit.
  • Majored in sociology as an undergrad and then went on to get a Master’s in social work.
  • Participated in CORE and SNCC attended meetings and participated in sit-ins at restaurants and protests. This participation raised her awareness of unfairness, inequalities, and unequal opportunities.
  • Became bothered by how male-dominated the Civil Rights Movement was.
  • “I became frustrated with the licking-envelopes role that women were relegated to. There weren’t any women leaders and it seemed like the men liked it that way”
  • Began to take note of an anti-white sentiment within the Civil Rights Movement, whites became not as desired and she began to realize that it wasn’t her fight.
  • Feels there is a strong connection between the Civil Rights Movement and her feminist work
  • Role models: Glaberman, Steinem, NOW leaders
  • Influential book: When and Where I Enter
  • Interested in divisions between black and white feminists. “Black women weren’t welcomed equally into the early women’s movement.”
  • Jewish feminist activism: “the values that my parents instilled in me really informed how I became concerned in the role women were playing.”
  • Belongs to the Michigan Women’s Forum (meet’s one a month for a luncheon and speaker) existed for many years as a project of the AJC. Serves on the board. Tagline: “The Thinking Woman’s Network.”
  • Loves the story behind the orange on the Seder plate “A rabbi said women will be rabbis when there is an orange on the Seder plate.
  • Michigan Women’s Forum hosts a feminist Seder every year which she always attends.
  • Always connected to the sisterhood not the Judaism.
  • Currently belongs to a reform temple.
  • “The Seder celebrates the role of women in our history that wasn’t celebrated in our services or liturgy.”
  • Major issues: Pay equity, equal pay for equal work, reproductive rights, child care, credit for women.
  • Became pregnant while in college and had an (illegal) abortion in 1966, she went to Pennsylvania to have the procedure done. “There was such an underground you’d be amazed — you write a letter and you just get a slip in the mail: a date, a time, and a place because it was all illegal.”
  • Roe passed in 1973. “The fact that women were forced to bear children that they weren’t ready to bear seemed very significant.”
  • Heard many horror stories of abortionists in Detroit.
  • Started teaching at Wayne County Community College in 1969 and remembers students bringing children to classes.
  • “I saw [the care of] children as another obstacle to women to pursue careers and school.”
  • Remembers efforts in clinic escorting as a particular success. The escorting allowed women to get a legal procedure.
  • “I remember the first time a woman looked at me and called me a murder. It was so visceral, it was so hateful.”
  • “I remember one woman pointing to her child and saying, ‘they would have wanted me to kill you.'”
  • The Michigan chapter of NOW was instrumental in writing much of the language for the state’s domestic violence laws.
  • Worked at Interim House, one of the very first domestic violence shelters in Michigan.
  • “Domestic violence is terrorism in the home.”
  • Success: women were finally able to get credit in their own name.
  • Another success was the passing of the Equal Work for Equal Pay Act in 1963
  • Worked to raise consciousness in the community.
  • Another success: Michigan has marital rape laws which established that the marriage license is not a license for sex (many states still do not have these laws).
  • Wanted the government, colleges, and the workplace to be concerned about childcare
  • Was active in the Childcare Coordinating Committee
  • Did a wet-in at city council – she and many other women brought their children to a meeting to demand the city establish a childcare center for city workers.
  • For a class she was teaching she was able to secure a small grant and with this she established the first evening childcare center in Michigan.
  • Saw her Jewish values as motivating her feminist activism “having core values really underscores how you see the world, the Jewish value is that you can’t sit back, you have to participate, you have to do something to ameliorate that [injustice that you see]. I had a part to play.”
  • First person in her family to go to college.
  • One of the first VISTA (now AmeriCorps) volunteers in U.S., went away for a year and worked in a poverty-ridden neighborhood – “Led me to social work. I saw social work as an opportunity to make social change.”
  • Definition of Feminism: Equal opportunities for men and women and equal access.
  • Served as President of Detroit NOW.
  • Served on National NOW board.
  • Spoke on a Ms. Cruise.
  • Sees feminism as a true sisterhood and support group.
  • Chose to have a son as a single woman at the age of 34.
  • “[Local feminist organizations] have provided me with a security blanket of like-minded women…It’s beyond the goals of our lives and the opportunities; we care about each other.”
  • Parents were disappointed she joined the movement instead of getting married.
  • Says of Freidan “we embrace women leaders for their flaws.” She was embarrassed by Freidan’s homophobia but never discounted her for it.
  • Personally experienced very little tension between gay and straight women in the movement. But thinks perhaps many women hesitated to come out until they felt comfortable in the atmosphere of the movement or particular organization.
  • Works to combat the persisting view that NOW serves the interests of white, middle-class women. “The media still paints us with a broad f-word stroke, [to them] abortion is still our only issue…We’re not good at getting our message out.”
  • Experienced anti-Semitism when she was executive director of the YWCA (1989-1993) from people within the organization.
  • Religion isn’t a problem at NOW because it rarely comes up at meetings other than the separation of church and state.
  • Sees third-wave feminists as reluctant to attend meetings, into email, more focused on action. “A little too complacent.”
  • “We have won many of the fights, but they’re chiseling away at reproductive rights.”
  • Worries that young people see feminism at anachronistic.
  • Still teaches at Wayne County Community College, Wayne State University, and Sienna Heights High School.
  • Advice: Be involved with something: your block, your community, the environment…
  • Due to the disparity in wages “I should really pay 69 cents for a loaf of bread; a man should pay the dollar.”
  • Member of the Veteran Feminists – those active since 1970.

Audio 1 (mp3)
Audio 2 (mp3)
Audio 3 (mp3)
Audio 4 (mp3)


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