Gloria Steinem, Feminist Icon and Writer, Dies at 92
Gloria Steinem, the writer and activist who became a leading voice of the American feminist movement, has died at 92. Her decades-long public life, chronicled in the pages of TIME, reflected both the changing role of women in society and her own evolution from a subject of style commentary to a recognized political force.
Gloria Steinem, the writer and activist who became one of the most recognizable faces of the American feminist movement, died on Sept. 2 at the age of 92. Over her long career, Steinem moved from being described in the press as a stylish party guest to being celebrated as a feminist icon, a shift that mirrored the broader changes in attitudes toward women that she helped bring about.
Born on March 25, 1934, Steinem had an unconventional childhood. Her father, she later said, had two points of pride: he never wore a hat and never held a job, always chasing schemes to make a movie or start a new business. She did not spend a full year in school until she was 12, when her parents separated and she moved with her mother, whose mental health was in serious decline, to East Toledo, Ohio. At 16, she was sent to live with an aunt in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Smith College in 1956, she spent two years in India on a fellowship, then returned to the United States to work in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a group encouraging American students to attend Communist youth festivals abroad. The organization was later revealed to be funded by the CIA, a fact that did not trouble Steinem. She said she was happy to use the Establishment's money against the Establishment.
Her big break came in 1963, when she published a first-person account of her month working undercover as a Playboy Bunny in Show magazine. The story made her name but also threatened to typecast her, as she was initially offered only similar assignments. During this period, coverage of Steinem often focused on her appearance rather than her work. One early TIME description noted her wearing a dress made of widely spaced bands of chinchilla held together by transparent black net. She later joined the fledgling New York magazine, where her first story in 1968 examined Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh's time as a waiter and laundryman in New York City.
As she found her footing as a journalist, Steinem began using her platform to advocate for equality. In a 1970 essay for TIME, she wrote that women did not want to exchange places with men but did want to change the economic system to one based more on merit. She called for free access to good jobs and decent pay for the work women had been performing all along, including housework. Her activism soon moved beyond writing. In 1971, she joined Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan and others to convene the National Women's Political Caucus, aimed at getting more women into government. Shortly after, she co-founded Ms. magazine, which she described as a how-to magazine, not about making jelly but about seizing control of your life.
TIME's coverage began to acknowledge her growing influence, with writers calling her feminism's superstar. A story on the 1972 Democratic convention noted her satisfaction that the gathering almost looked like the country, with women making up close to 40 percent of delegates, a dramatic jump from 13 percent in 1968. The magazine still had a way to go in its own framing, describing the women delegates as decorative in their bell-bottom trousers and hot pants, though it acknowledged they were there to seek power, not to be on display.
After the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, Steinem's political campaigning took a backseat to advocacy. She considered the 1977 National Women's Conference one of her proudest achievements, calling it the most important event that nobody knows about, even as it sparked a conservative backlash. In later decades, her activism broadened to include campaigns on behalf of native people, opposition to apartheid and the first Gulf War, advocacy for disarmament in Korea, and work against child abuse, female genital mutilation and pornography. She was also an early supporter of LGB rights.
Steinem remained active and relevant into her later years, inspiring generations of women to organize and demand the same opportunities as men. In a 2011 interview with TIME, she described her vision of society as a circle rather than a hierarchy, arguing that the women's movement, the anti-racist movement, the gay movement and the environmentalist movement are all linked. Her death marks the end of a life that helped reshape the terms of public debate about gender and equality in America.
