Women tend to be conservative in youth and get more radical as they get older because they lose power with age. So if a young woman is not a feminist, I say, 'Just wait.'

When the system stops working for you

There's something quietly brutal in Steinem's observation—the idea that feminism isn't always chosen out of pure principle, but often arrives as an unwelcome guest when life itself forces your hand. A young woman might feel genuinely fine with the status quo because she hasn't yet hit the invisible wall. She's still in the phase where beauty, charm, or simple youth can open doors. Why question a system that's working for you right now?

But Steinem's real insight isn't cynical so much as it is realistic. She's describing something most women eventually encounter: the creeping realization that the world's rulebook changes without warning. You stop being asked for your opinion. Your ideas get credited to someone else. You're not hired because you're "overqualified" (read: older). The power you might have taken for granted simply evaporates. Suddenly the feminist arguments you once dismissed as someone else's problem become entirely personal.

This doesn't mean young women who aren't feminists are foolish. It means that politics and beliefs aren't always abstract—they become urgent when they stop being theoretical. Experience has a way of radicalizing people not through argument but through lived reality. Steinem's "just wait" isn't cruel; it's a recognition that the world tends to teach these lessons whether we're ready or not.