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Gloria Steinem, Feminist Icon and Ms. Magazine Co-Founder, Dies at 92
ReGloria Steinem, Feminist Icon and Ms. Magazine Co-Founder, Dies at 92
Gloria Steinem, a leading voice of second-wave feminism and co-founder of Ms. magazine and the National Women's Political Caucus, has died at 92 in New York City.
Gloria Steinem, whose undercover reporting, advocacy, and co-founding of Ms. magazine helped shape the modern women’s movement, died Sept. 2 at her home in New York City. She was 92. Steinem was widely recognized as an icon of second-wave feminism, a label she earned through decades of writing, speaking, and organizing on behalf of women’s rights.
Born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem first gained national attention in 1963 when she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny to expose the degradation and misogyny embedded in the job. That story, often cited as her defining early moment, was just the beginning of a lifelong commitment to gender equality. In 1971, she co-founded both Ms. magazine and, alongside many other feminists, the National Women’s Political Caucus. She also campaigned vigorously for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Steinem herself did not consider her life as an “active feminist” to have begun until 1969, when, in her mid-30s, she attended an abortion speak-out in a church basement. She was there as a reporter for New York magazine but was deeply moved by the stories women told and the truths they revealed publicly. She later shared her own truth, dedicating her 2015 book “My Life on the Road” to Dr. John Sharpe of London, who in 1957, a decade before abortion was legal in England, risked his career to refer a 22-year-old American woman for the procedure. In the dedication, Steinem wrote that Sharpe asked her to promise two things: not to reveal his name and to do what she wanted with her life. She concluded, “I’ve done the best I could with my life.”
Steinem’s warmth and approachability set her apart in a movement often seen as distant or academic. She seemed to be everywhere, from nightly news broadcasts to mentions on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Her speeches and interviews conveyed a genuine connection with audiences, making her a reliable and beloved figure across generations. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Her personal history shaped her activism. After her parents’ divorce, Steinem, at age 10, became the sole caretaker for her mother, Ruth, who struggled with mental illness and had difficulty keeping a job. Feminism was in her lineage: her paternal grandmother was involved in the women’s suffrage movement and was the first woman elected to the Toledo Board of Education.
Steinem’s influence extended beyond policy and politics. She inspired countless individuals, including writer Meg Wolitzer, who recalled watching her own mother, a writer who had not been encouraged to pursue her talents fully, become transformed by the women’s movement. Wolitzer, who attended Steinem’s 50th birthday party, described the guest list as including Carol Burnett, Sally Ride, and Rosa Parks, a testament to Steinem’s reach across culture, science, and civil rights.
In an interview with New York magazine, Steinem once joked that in her old age she would love to own a diner, a place she described as “the most democratic” because everyone goes there. She never opened one, but her life’s work was a symbolic diner, bringing together people from all walks of life to talk and to push for radical societal change. Her legacy endures in the ongoing fight for equality she helped ignite.
