With much anticipation, I curled up with my husband on the couch to watch HBO’s Gloria: In Her Own Words. I was thrilled to have my little sister, who has just completed her first year of college, join us, and I was excited to have my 5-year-old son experience it as well before I saw the nudity warning and decided a good mother would screen it first.

As President of The White House Project, a nonprofit that inspires and prepares the next generation of women to lead in politics and business, the reason for my eagerness was twofold.

First, I felt a duty to pay tribute to an elder that helped define the movement I am bent on carrying forward. Whether working undercover as a Playboy Bunny to expose the horrible working conditions, campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment, or co-founding Ms. Magazine, Steinem was committed to bringing attention to the sexism ingrained in every fabric of our society. Through her words, activism and life, Steinem continues to be a sage and symbol of feminism. As an African-American woman, my culture calls on me to honor those on whose shoulders I stand from both the civil rights and women’s liberation movements.

Second, I couldn’t wait to view the documentary for inspiration as I work every day to invite and equip young women to lead their communities – whether on the school board or in a board room. Our nation has many problems; an ailing economy and high levels of unemployment, an education system failing many children, and astronomical healthcare costs, to name just a few.  Thankfully our nation also has many solutions– more than 150 million of them, to be exact. Our solution is women.

The future of feminism will involve millions of young women not only knocking on the doors of power (and even breaking them down, as some of our foremothers did), but also sitting at the tables of power. We will lead, not only from the foot of the table, but from the head of it. If the recent debt debate debacle was any indication, we will not be able to arrive at innovative solutions to our most complex problems with the same homogeneous group of people in charge. Our nation is starving for diverse leadership and it is our responsibility to pursue and secure positions of power and influence, where our perspectives will inform decisions that affect all of us.

Towards the end of Gloria: In Her Own Words, Steinem says to the next generation, “If I had one piece of advice…I would say do not listen to my advice. Listen to the voice inside you and follow that.” We are listening, Gloria, and we are answering the call to leadership. Thank you for yours.

Follow Tiffany Dufu on Twitter @tdufu
Read more about The White House Project www.thewhitehouseproject.org

Editor's note: Gloria Steinem is the co-founder of the Women's Media Center. Read more here. @WomensMediaCtr