New World Order LAANE Honoree Jane Fonda Believes That Women Can Help Reshape Global Consciousness and Create
a Just, Sustainable Future
In 2005, Jane Fonda—who was honored at LAANE’s annual Women for a New Los Angeles Luncheon— published My Life So Far, a memoir of her life as an actress, activist, wife and feminist. The book takes us from her youth among Hollywood’s elite to her film career to her work to build a more just society. This passage is from the book’s epilogue.
We face a shrinking, congested planet with diminishing resources and no vast, conquerable frontier to escape and expand into. Globalization may be creating one sort of unified world, but for it to be a peaceful, just, sustainable form of unity, our consciousness needs to catch up to it.
The new reality demands internationalism, multilateralism, humility, and compassion. But these approaches are considered “effeminate” by the men who currently run our country. If Christ returned today, would he be labeled “effeminate” by these same people?—those disciples, that emphasis on forgiveness, that suspicious identification with women and with the poor!
There’s a lot of work ahead. But the longest, darkest night of the year—the winter solstice, my birthday—is also, in the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice, the longest, brightest day of the year. It all depends on your perspective.
From my perspective, what we are seeing are the final paroxysms, the flailing, dangerous death throes, of the old, no longer workable, no longer justifiable patriarchal paradigm. I believe that just beneath the surface a great tectonic shift is occurring. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is one of the places where the earth’s crust is thinnest and where thermal activity is closest to the surface (the famous geyser Old Faithful is but the most dramatic evidence of this activity). If you walk or drive through the forests and meadows, you can see steam and puddles of hot mud bubbling up through cracks in the earth’s surface. I have witnessed the equivalent of that steam and hot mud bubbling up all around the world—in the form of women and men who are ripening the time for the bubbling to become volcanic.
Click above to watch a short video— featuring honoree Jane Fonda—from LAANE's Women for a New Los Angeles Luncheon.
Recommended Reading Special women’s edition selection of books on labor history, democracy and the progressive movement
in America
L.A. Story By Ruth Milkman
Sociologist and labor expert Ruth Milkman explains how Los Angeles, once known as a company town hostile to labor, became a hotbed for unionism, and how immigrant service workers emerged as the unlikely leaders in the battle for workers’ rights.
Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics From the Politicians By Laura Flanders
The feminist Air America radio host and successful author explains how progressives are coming after the conservative establishment with new talent, new ideas, new media and new cash, and they have their sights set on building a new progressive movement, whether or not the Democratic Party is ready.
Femininity in Flight By Kathleen Barry
This book argues that the way flight attendants have seen themselves, been marketed and have organized reflects shifting views of the role of women in American society.
Gendering Labor History By Alice Kessler-Harris
A leading historian articulates gender’s fundamental importance in the shaping of U.S. history and working-class culture in this book of essays.
On the Picket Line Mary E. Triece
Working-class women developed their own tactics and leadership styles to challenge economic injustice and discrimination during the Great Depression. This book looks at the way female organizers often used a more personal speaking style to connect with audiences.
We face a shrinking, congested planet with diminishing resources and no vast, conquerable frontier to escape and expand into. Globalization may be creating one sort of unified world, but for it to be a peaceful, just, sustainable form of unity, our consciousness needs to catch up to it. 
Sociologist and labor expert Ruth Milkman explains how Los Angeles, once known as a company town hostile to labor, became a hotbed for unionism, and how immigrant service workers emerged as the unlikely leaders in the battle for workers’ rights.
The feminist Air America radio host and successful author explains how progressives are coming after the conservative establishment with new talent, new ideas, new media and new cash, and they have their sights set on building a new progressive movement, whether or not the Democratic Party is ready.
This book argues that the way flight attendants have seen themselves, been marketed and have organized reflects shifting views of the role of women in American society.
A leading historian articulates gender’s fundamental importance in the shaping of U.S. history and working-class culture in this book of essays.
Working-class women developed their own tactics and leadership styles to challenge economic injustice and discrimination during the Great Depression. This book looks at the way female organizers often used a more personal speaking style to connect with audiences.