Gloria Steinem reacts to the presidential radio address being delivered for the first time in history by the First Lady in her husband's stead. The New York Times, November 11, 2001:

"I can't think of any motive other than the gender gap," she said last week. "But they should understand that the gender gap is smart, and can tell the difference between rhetoric and reality."

Women might also remember back 20 years, she said, when the United States was supplying arms to the mujahedeen, or the "freedom fighters" trying to rid Afghanistan of its Soviet invaders. The Soviets built schools and educated women, actions that the fundamentalist mujahedeen despised. Many of those mujahedeen now make up large parts of the Northern Alliance, America's current ally, and the Taliban.

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