OK, everyone. I’m sitting in the ballroom of the lavish Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle, New York. The Ms. Foundation is holding the 19th Annual Gloria Awards and I’m here to live blog the event for you. (As promised, I’ll try to offer what ever tidbits I can get on the celebs here. Unfortunately one of the presenters I was dying to meet, Pam Grier, is sick and won’t be here. Remember her? The 70s bombshell from the blaxploitation films.)

I did just hang with Gloria…you know, Gloria Steinem. She’s smartly dressed in a black see-through mesh tunic looking as fit as ever. (She was born March 25, 1934.)

And she still has the fire in her belly when it comes to the women’s movement and issues of equality.

I asked her if she’s frustrated that after all these decades women are still battling for equal pay for equal work and she asked: “What kind of blog is this?” before she launched into a bunch of expletives about how after centuries of living in a male-dominated society change can not happen over night.

She said she was “touched and moved” by the great progress our society has made, but “angry” that we have so far to go.

It’s about not valuing the work that women do, she says. “It’s based on the social identity of workers, not the work.” A nurse makes less than the garbage man that cleans out the trash at a hospital. The parking attendant makes more than the child care attendant.

On that note, this low paid journalist has to go get some free fancy food.

I’ll have more for you guys in a moment so keep checking the blog and comment, comment, comment. Do you have questions you want me to ask the great women here in attendance, many of which have spent their careers helping to empower women.