It’s not a good thing when you read a book that came out 40 years ago and the same problems outlined within the pages are still happening today.

I found Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983) by Gloria Steinem to be a page turner. This is a collection of articles of which all but two had been previously published. So, in reality, the words are even older than 40 years.

Anyone who cares about women’s rights—which should be everyone no matter gender or age—is bound to get something out of this book. It’s educational by it’s subject matter. It’s sad because of how far we have not come. It’s timely because the same rights she has spent a lifetime fighting for are evaporating seemingly every day.

Steinem has a way with words that grabs the reader even when writing about difficult subjects. And she is so incredibly creative when things are little less serious.

In this collection of works are five essays about women you all have probably heard of, but maybe have not read the sentiments conveyed by Steinem. The subchapters are titled: Marilyn Monroe: The woman who died too soon; Patricia Nixon flying; The real Linda Lovelace; Jackie reconsidered; and Alice Walker: Do you know this woman? She knows you.

 Walter Cronkite, remember, the book came out four decades ago, wrote this about the book, “For those of us who have long admired Gloria Steinem’s reportorial and writing skills, there has been concern that this side of persona had taken a back seat to her activism as a feminist. Now we have proof that nothing has been lost, for she has combined her talents and her advocacy here in what surely must be the definitive philosophical and historical work about this movement that, belatedly, has transformed our society.”

Sadly, 40 years later this book is relevant and should be read by women and men so one equality might be achieved.