Can a feminist vote for Barack Obama in good conscience?

Gloria Steinem says yes.

“True feminism means a woman doesn’t have to do anything except what she feels is right,” the pioneer of the women’s movement said the other day before giving a lecture on legal theory at the University of Baltimore.

“Barack Obama is a feminist, and Hillary Clinton is a civil rights advocate.”

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Still, even powerful women are lambasted for doing what they think is right: Several women called Oprah a traitor for backing Obama.

Steinem, who turns 74 this month, sent Oprah an e-mail that read, “You just tell me who they are and I’ll talk to them.”

Media coverage of Clinton has been unfair, says Steinem, a Clinton supporter, because the sex barrier is not taken as seriously as the racial one.

She points to a Harvard University study showing how Obama has garnered more positive coverage than Clinton. And witness the “Saturday Night Live” skit with reporters fawning over Obama.

“What worries me is that she is accused of playing the gender card when citing the old boys’ club, while he is seen as unifying by citing civil rights confrontations,” Steinem wrote in a recent op-ed article.

Sitting in a UB conference room, Steinem says she isn’t trying to put the fight for gender equality ahead of racial equality. But sometimes she finds the situation ridiculous, she says.

After Democrats choose their candidate to face Republican John McCain, the perennial issue of abortion will resurface, Steinem predicts, even if younger voters seem more worried about the economy.

McCain is trying to criminalize abortion, so it will come up again, she says, calling attempts to outlaw the procedure “the root cause of women’s secondary position.”

If young women have a problem today, Steinem says, it’s that they aren’t yet aware of the injustices hurting half of the population.

Consider Sarah Puls and her friend.

Waiting in a UB auditorium for Steinem to take the podium Friday, Puls, 24, of Baltimore, recounts how a friend had asked why she wanted to attend.

“I said, ‘You know, women’s issues,’ and my friend asked, ‘What issues?’ ” says Puls, who laments how most of her bosses are men.

“People just don’t get it.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com