Emma Watson interviews Oneworld's Gloria Steinem

Global goodwill ambassador for UN women Emma Watson and political activist Gloria Steinem enthralled an audience of 950 people yesterday (24th February) at an event to mark the launch of Watson's new feminist book club.

The pair discussed a range of topics on the theme of feminism, such as equal marriage, sex and world peace at London's Emmanuel Centre, in celebration of Steinem's memoir My Life on the Road (Oneworld).

The title was chosen as Watson's first selection for her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf, hosted by Goodreads - a decision which sent sales of Steinem's title soaring after it was announced. The second book chosen for the club is the winner of the Pullitzer Prize The Color Purple by Alice Walker, published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicholson. It has sold 500 copies since the announcement, made early February, jumping 58.3% in weekly sales volume the week immediately following Watson's announcement.

Both the event and a separate stream of ticket sales for seats in an adjacent room offering a live video link to Steinem and Watson's interview had sold out, with Steinem attending a book signing at Foyles today to accomodate the "overflow" of people who couldn't get in.

Watson, 25, and Steinem, 81, introduced to the stage as "undoubtedly one of the 21st centuries greatest feminists", spoke for over an hour with Watson in the role of interviewer. Asked by Watson how she "self-defines", Steinem, who co-founded Ms Magazine, said: "I still call myself a writer as that is what matters most to me." Steinem also helped to found New York Magazine, where she was a politcal columnist, and has written books including Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem (Open Road Media) and Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellion (Holt McDougal).

Steinem has spent most of her life on the road, which began with an itinerant childhood with her father. Watson asked the impact this may have had on her writing and whether it had enabled her to see the world "more imaginatively", adding: "I think anything when you're a child that makes you different is really difficult." 

Steinem said she'd "regretted [her absence from school] at the time" but that it was actually a "good thing". 

"I missed a certain amount of brainwashing," she said, "It's odd that the things you regret sometimes turn out to be the things you celebrate." 

Watson is currently taking a year off to focus on studying feminism, setting herself a "personal task" of reading a book a week, plus a book a month "as part of my book club". In an interview for Paper Watson ellaborated: "My understanding that has allowed me to feel so much more accepting and loving of myself as a woman - it came through reading."

Sex and World Peace, published by Columbia University Press, was a gift from Steinem to Watson when they first met and was highlighted during the session as another worthy read. "There are now 101.3 men to every 100 women on the planet - so women are no longer half of humanity," said Watson. "I had to put the book down because I was so blindsided by this statistic. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to Google it and see if it were true. I can't even wrap my head around it."

Quoting the book, she expanded: "More lives have been lost through violence against women [...] than were lost during all of the wars and civil strife of the 20th century. I had not understood we are literally affecting the balance of the population of the world and how that population is made up."

Steinem also praised the book, adding: "It points out that the best indicator of whether there will be violence inside a country and in the streets, or whether that country will be willing to use military force against another country, is actually not poverty, not access to natural resources, not religion or degree of democracy - it's violence against women. Not because female life is any more important than male life, it's not, but because it's what we see first. We look at the microcosm of violence, and sexual violence, for these reasons."

Potential "booby traps", in Watson's words, for a feminist in the context of marriage were also discussed. Steinem said: "If I had married when I was supposed to get married I would have lost my name, my credit rating, my domicile, my civil rights. We have made that part equal. But there is still the pressure of the outside world. When you leave the door of your household you are treated differently. Women with children are way less likely to get employed and men with children are more likely. They are seen as responsible and women distracted."

Steinem said the UK was "ahead" of the US in terms of issues such as parental leave, and Scandinavia ahead of the UK, but that we "can learn from eachother".

She added: "If we choose to have children, I don't think it's possible to have a real equal marriage until men are raising the children with us. And it's for the sake of the children. If they do not see men can be nurturing and patient they won't know that's possible and if they don't see women outside the home and achieving their interests they won't know that that's possible. If we don't have democratic families we're never going to have a democratic society ever."

On the subject of better representation of women on the world stage, Watson hailed Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau's 50-50 cabinet as "awesome". Conversely on Trump's candidacy for the US presidency, she said: "I would say that it's entertaining but it's slightly terrifying".

Steinem and Watson's talk was part of a packed tour for Steinem, who was described by her publisher Juliet Mabey at Oneworld as having "the stamina of a Lion", as well as being incredibly "gracious" - something Watson echoed, calling her "so engaged and mad as hell" as well as being "really zen" with an "amazing sense of patience".

In addition to Steinem's appearance at Foyles today she is also due to attend the Cambridge Book Festival in conversation with Laura Bates, blogger and author behind Everyday Sexism (Simon & Schuster UK).