Alison Garwood Jones

“I hope Gloria doesn’t die from a broken heart.”

I said this to a girlfriend last Spring. I knew Gloria Steinem wouldn’t live forever.

By September 2nd she was gone. This loss felt personal to half the world.

I felt the sear again yesterday leafing through the August 31st copy of The New Yorker. On p. 3, there’s 92-year-old Gloria smiling in her last headshot next to similarly hopeful headshots of Cole Escola, Parker Posey and Wynton Marsalis, all of them together in an ad for The New Yorker Festival on Oct 23-25th.

If Gloria died broken hearted because the rights she and her generation worked so hard to secure for us were crumbling like sand castles she never said so in public.

Our work isn’t done, she told guests around her dinner table, women who stopped her on the street, and, I can only imagine, the loved ones gathered around her before she passed.

That work began as a campaign to convince the majority of Americans (and Canadians) that women were human beings worthy of rights. Instagram reels reminded me of that in the days and weeks after her passing. My first thought after hearing that again was: ‘My God, this feels like an awful lot of work.”

I’m still holding out hope that the five decades we’ve just lived through, when women in the west enjoyed progressively more rights, will be enough to prevent the clock from setting us back that far again.

To all the women in my circle and beyond who follow what’s happening in the world and are concerned and mentally wiped out, but open to inspiration, I have some for you. It’s designed to make you feel good about how you show up every single day.

Frances Valentine, the vintage-inspired clothing designer, just launched a limited edition collection honouring another feminist icon of the late 1960s and early seventies, Mary Tyler Moore. Founders Elyse Arons and Kate Spade both studied journalism because of Mary.

While Mary and Gloria admitted to embracing feminism their own way, both were fierce advocates of women’s advancement and both loved the power of clothes and jewelry to make a woman feel good about her work and her place in the world. Wonder Woman bangles and chain link belts anyone?

The limited edition MTM collection from Frances Valentine includes the Petrie Pant (black capris), ribbed turtlenecks and gorgeous bright red peacoats, chunky heels and knitted berets and, of course, cute clutch purses — all designed to lead you into fall. Notable women of all ages in arts and journalism are modelling the collection, including reporter Deborah Roberts, actor Bernadette Peters, journalism student Rowan Henchy, comedians Rachel Dratch and Mindy Cohn, and more.*

Thank you Frances Valentine for lighting our torches with Mary’s optimism, sense of style and, yes, her SPUNK!

Will you be dressing like it’s 1969?