"Gloria's Voice" by Aura Lewis is a fantastic potted picture-book history of Gloria Steinem, feminist, activist, leader and editor of Ms. Magazine - a magazine that changed the face of publishing and shook the male-centric industry to its core.
Gloria was brought up to think of women and men as equal, but found so many instances where women were expected to stay at home, raise kids, tend the house and not follow their aspirations and dreams. In fact Gloria's own mother - who always wanted to work in New York as a writer and magazine editor - was forced to choose a life as a housewife and mother first too.
Gloria was determined to follow in her father's footsteps - so when she was old enough to travel that's exactly what she did, travelling to India and all over the world.
Her real passion was writing and she wanted to pursue a similar path to her mother's dream, become a writer in New York and cover stories around feminist issues. But at the time the magazine industry was a closed door to ideas like that.
With tons of encouragement and the help of her friends, Gloria Steinem finally founded Ms. Magazine and it covered female-centric stories, was staffed and produced by women, and became an iconic publication that many others saw as an inspiration, and followed with their own versions promoting women's rights.
This is a fantastic read for C, who loves to read stories about inspirational females - particularly ones who overcame such huge odds to follow their dreams and really make an impact on the world, just as Gloria did.
It's Glori-ous!
"Gloria's Voice: The Story of Gloria Steinem - Feminist, Activist, Leader" by Aura Lewis is out now, published by Sterling Publishing (kindly supplied for review).