Gloria Steinem, in a Facebook post on Sunday morning, walked back pro-Hillary Clinton comments critics contend are patronizing toward young women.
“Whether they gravitate to Bernie [Sanders] or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before,” wrote Steinem, one of the modern feminist movement’s leading voices.
Steinem’s post came after a day’s worth of criticism, when “Real Time” host Bill Maher asked her why, as a supporter of Hillary Clinton, she thought her preferred candidate was not doing better with young women. At the time, she said young women were supporting Bernie Sanders to meet “boys.”
“They’re going to get more activist as they get older,” Steinem said. “And when you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys?’ The boys are with Bernie.”
In her post, Steinem said she had been “misinterpreted” and had also pointed out instances of a vigorous strain of feminism among today’s young women.
“In a case of talk-show Interruptus, I misspoke on the Bill Maher show recently, and apologize for what’s been misinterpreted as implying young women aren’t serious in their politics,” Steinem wrote.
This snafu came alongside broader arguments over sexism in the Democratic race, with Sanders lambasting so-called “Bernie bros” and Clinton hitting what she termed the “double standard” mindset of the pundit class, on Sunday’s edition of CNN’s State of the Union.