It is believed that the 21st-century international slave trade has trapped between 15 million and 30 million people in human bondage. Most of the victims of human trafficking enter the trade as children. Experts also believe that this number will increase with the global economic crisis and as poverty rates continue to rise.
Steinem
Although best known as a pioneering feminist, Gloria Steinem always has been a civil rights advocate. Her work now extends to the burgeoning global problem of human trafficking.
Steinem will be on campus at noon Monday, April 12, in Graham Chapel speaking on “Sex Trafficking and the New Abolitionists” for the Assembly Series. The event has been rescheduled from March 3 when it was cancelled due to illness. Steinem hopes that a call to arms will help create policies to stem this rising tide of entrapment.
The program is free and open to the public.
After graduating from Smith College in 1956, Steinem became a freelance writer and journalist.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Steinem’s passionate and articulate messages in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment established her as a leader in the Women’s Movement.
In quick succession, she helped establish a number of significant advances for women, including co-founding the National Women’s Political Caucus, which supported the bipartisan election of females to legislative office; becoming editor and publisher of Ms. magazine; creating the Ms. Foundation for Women and, under its auspices, inaugurating “Take Our Daughters To Work Day”; and co-founding the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
She gained additional prominence as a speaker at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. She has worked alongside Civil Rights leaders such as Coretta Scott King and Cesar Chavez, publicly opposed the Vietnam War and publicly supported gay rights.
For information about this and upcoming Assembly Series programs, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4620.