Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has apologized for mocking young female supporters of Bernie Sanders by saying they’re only backing the Vermont senator to meet boys.
Steinem, who has endorsed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, backed away from snarky comments she made last week on “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“In a case of talk-show Interruptus, I misspoke on the Bill Maher show recently, and apologize for what’s been misinterpreted as implying young women aren’t serious in their politics,” Steinem wrote Sunday on her Facebook page.
“What I had just said on the same show was the opposite: young women are active, mad as hell about what’s happening to them, graduating in debt, but averaging a million dollars less over their lifetimes to pay it back.”
She concluded: “Whether they gravitate to Bernie or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before.”
Days earlier, Steinem was dismissive of Sanders’ female supporters.
Maher asked her why Clinton, who’d be America’s first female president, hadn’t been scoring more support with young ladies.
“They’re going to get more activist as they get older,” Steinem said. “And when you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys?’ The boys are with Bernie.”
National polls have consistently shown Sanders winning over young voters while Clinton has the backing of women.
But pollsters haven’t yet gone as far as measuring Democratic preference of young women, though anecdotal evidence suggests Sanders is more than holding his own in this category.
“All you have to do is look at the crowds,” Quinnipiac University pollster Tim Malloy told The Post on Monday.
“Take a snapshot of a Bernie rally and you’ll see it’s loaded with young people — under 25, and of both genders.”