Feminism is not finished yet. It's not even at the halfway marker.

That is the message Gloria Steinem, a leader in the women's rights movement, delivered to a packed crowd at the Eisenhower Auditorium last night.

"Who says this is an apathetic place?" Steinem asked, after being received by a roaring applause.

The Ms. magazine founder said that most successful movements take more than 100 years to accomplish change.

The first wave of feminism achieved goals such as the right to vote, but the second wave aims to take those goals further to obtain absolute social equity.

By Steinem's estimation, that second step has about 70 more years to go.

Other ideas she explored include the role of a patriarchal society, the connection between different struggles and the definition of what feminism is.

Steinem talked about the strains a patriarchal society puts on its men to be masculine and violent. These societies teach certain groups of people that they have the right to dominate others, she said.

This message is -- at least in part -- responsible for such senseless acts of violence as the Sept. 11 attacks and the Columbine shootings, Steinem said.

In both instances, the perpetrators of the crimes were members of dominant culture, she said.

"It was not our children, it was our sons," she said of the Columbine incident.

During a question and answer period after the speech, one student revisited this idea. Jason Moyer (senior-engineering science) said that as a white man he feels like he is a manifestation of the patriarchal society Steinem described.

Moyer said he felt alienated because of this and wanted to know how he could be part of the movement.

Before Steinem could reply the crowd erupted with applause. When noise quieted, she explained how he should look inside himself for the answer to his own question, and realize that he is there for his own, justified purposes.

"I think that empathy is the most revolutionary emotion," Steinem said.

Moyer later said that he felt accepted when he received a positive reaction from the crowd.

"It makes me feel like there is hope that I can do something," he said.

In her speech, Steinem said individuals from different oppressed groups must unite in the struggle for human rights.

"It is simply not possible to have a feminist movement that isn't anti-racist," she said.

When slavery was practiced in this country, there were also laws that limited the rights of women, Steinem said. Black men could not have children with white women because that would threaten racial purity.

"These two things have always been intertwined," she explained.

Steinem also addressed feminism in terms of the gay and lesbian movements.

She said feminists must not allow for the institutionalized separation of sexuality and reproduction, which would include anti-abortion laws and laws against same-sex marriage.

"It's like saying, 'you can have freedom of speech but you can only say one thing,'" she said.

She went on to talk about the misunderstanding many people have about the nature of feminism, specifically on the Penn State campus.

The definition of feminism is simple: it is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, Steinem said.

"A woman has a choice: feminist or masochist," she added.

At least one anti-feminist campus group disagreed with Steinem's message, by writing messages on sidewalks with chalk before the speech.

When asked about the group's stance, Steinem simply said, "I defend their right to be wrong."

After her speech, Steinem asked audience members to introduce themselves to at least two new people and to do something outrageous within the next 24 hours. Laura Baker (freshman-journalism) said she was impressed with Steinem's speech of equality and social change. She said she was not sure what her outrageous act would be, as of yet: "I think it's just going to have to come to me."