Gloria Steinem Apologizes For Comments On Bernie Sanders’ Young Female Supporters

Gloria Steinem, the feminist activist and icon, has apologized for her recent controversial comments that many felt were sexist towards young female voters.

Gloria Steinem Apologizes

“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 in a Facebook post Sunday.

“What I had just said on the same show was the opposite: young women are active, mad as hell about what’s happening to them, graduating in debt, but averaging a million dollars less over their lifetimes to pay it back,” Steinem added. “Whether they gravitate to Bernie or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before.”

Steinem’s apology is an attempt at damage control for remarks she made on Real Time with Bill Maher. In the sit-down interview Friday night, Steinem gave her thoughts on why the majority of Millennial women are showing more enthusiasm at the prospect of a Bernie Sanders presidency than a Hillary Clinton presidency.

“Women get more radical as we get older. Men tend to get more conservative because they gain power as they age, and women get more radical because they lose power as they age,” Steinem opined, adding, “When you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys?’ The boys are with Bernie.”

Bill Maher, immediately aware of the potential negative effects of Steinem’s words, said, “Ooh, now if I said that … you’d swat me.” At the time, Steinem held her ground, countering, “No, I wouldn’t.”

Though Steinem has made a career out of being an outspoken feminist, her comments were perceived by many as being anti-woman. In the most-liked comment under Steinem’s apology post, a woman wrote, “You’re one of my heroes, Gloria, and to hear that you quite plainly stated ‘the boys are with Bernie’ in response to why young women are voting for Bernie Sanders was not only a sexist statement, but extremely disheartening.”

“Young women and women such as yourself are in this struggle together, and while I appreciate the apology, this statement doesn’t really confront the problem, nor how much damage your statement did,” the Facebook user added. “You chalked up an entire generation of women as brainless who vote for a man’s approval. That’s not why we earned the right to vote.”

New Hampshire Democratic voters will vote for Clinton and Sanders in Tuesday night’s primary.