Why Mary Tyler Moore Refused to Join the Feminist Movement
By GENEVIEVE WOOD Published on January 25, 2017
https://stream.org/mary-tyler-moore-...nist-movement/
Mary Tyler Moore was not what most people would call a conservative. But what may surprise many television fans mourning her passing at age 80 Wednesday is that the actress also didn't consider herself a liberal.
In the 2013 PBS series Pioneers of Television: Funny Ladies, Moore explained that despite her TV character's image on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a never-married working woman who became a feminist icon, she turned down Gloria Steinem's invitation to join the feminist movement.
"I believed, and still do, that women have a very major role to play as mothers," said Moore. "It's very necessary for them to be with their children. That's not what Gloria Steinem was saying. She was saying you can do everything and you owe it to yourself to have a career. I really didn't believe that."
As to electoral politics, Moore endorsed Jimmy Carter during his 1980 re-election campaign. But fast forward to 2008, when she said she would have done the same for Republican presidential nominee John McCain had he asked her to do so. (Memo to GOP: Missed opportunity.)
In an interview in 2009, Moore told Parade magazine, "When one looks at what's happened to television, there are so few shows that interest me. I do watch a lot of Fox News. I like Charles Krauthammer and Bill O'Reilly."
When asked if that meant she was a "right-winger," Moore replied, "Maybe more of a libertarian centrist."...