Jane Fonda is sharing one of the best components about working with good friend Gloria Steinem.
The actress and activist, 86, spoke with PEOPLE on the Girls’s Media Heart 2024 Girls’s Media Awards on Sept. 19. Fonda, who co-founded the Girls’s Media Heart with Steinem and Robin Morgan in 2005, says that Steinem, 90, is shaping the long run.
“You be taught a lot about historical past, ladies’s function in historical past, what it took to get this far, and we’ve come very far,” Fonda says. “[Steinem is] like a bit of historical past. And she or he’s framed the long run and it is completely inspirational. Her view of what must occur is exclusive and motivational and galvanizing, and I really like her dearly.”
The Girls’s Media Heart is a non-profit group which goals to “increase the visibility, viability and decision-making energy of ladies and women in media and, thereby, making certain that their tales get instructed and their voices are heard,” per their website.
Cindy Ord/Getty
The 2024 Awards celebrated a number of honorees for his or her work in media, together with NBC Information Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, director and producer Donna Deitch, MoveOn government director Rahna Epting, Pulso Founder and CEO Liz Rebecca Alarcón, Yellowhammer Fund government director Jenice Fountain and movie group Rooster & Egg Photos.
Fonda additionally shared with PEOPLE what evokes her most in regards to the youthful era.
“They’re fierce. They’re courageous. They stay their values,” Fonda says. “They’re smart sufficient to know how you can compromise, however by no means their core values, they usually’re altering the world. It is an honor to be a part of that.”
Steinem, who additionally attended the occasion, introduced the inaugural WMC Gloria Steinem Seen and Highly effective Award to actress and director America Ferrera, 40, in a pre-recorded speech.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is right here! How rapidly are you able to resolve it? Play now!
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty; Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan through Getty
“America, you’re courageous and you’re daring. You embody what I worth and have all the time fought for,” Steinem mentioned. “It means a lot to me personally that this primary ever award in my title goes to you to your groundbreaking portrayals of actual ladies in movie and tv, for utilizing your highly effective and brave voice to demand equity, respect, and alternative for all, and for shifting the tradition via your work as a storyteller and a tenacious advocate.”
Ferrera, additionally in a pre-recorded speech, recalled becoming a member of Steinem onstage at a convention in 2016, and being instructed by the activist to “keep proximate to the problems and to the folks most impacted by them.”
“Gloria, you embody seen and highly effective, and I’m simply thoughts blown to get to comply with in your footsteps,” Ferrera mentioned. The Oscar winner additionally paid tribute to the “nuanced roles” she’s performed all through her profession, together with in movies Actual Girls Have Curves, The Sisterhood of the Touring Pants and Barbie.
By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free every day publication to remain up-to-date on one of the best of what PEOPLE has to supply, from movie star information to driving human curiosity tales.
“As an artist and as an activist, I am compelled and impressed by so lots of you to push again on those that would attempt to mould me, to stereotype me or to restrict my alternatives in media or in life, and who would attempt to restrict anybody’s alternatives,” Ferrera highlighted in her speech.
