New York: Gloria Steinem, the influential American writer, lecturer, activist and organiser who spent more than five decades campaigning for gender equality and women’s civil and reproductive rights, has died at the age of 92.
Steinem’s foundation announced her death in an Instagram post on Thursday, saying she died on Wednesday. Her passing marks the end of a remarkable career that helped shape the modern feminist movement in the United States and influenced generations of women around the world.
As the co-founder and consulting editor of Ms. Magazine, Steinem became one of the most recognisable voices of the feminist movement from the late 1960s onwards. Through journalism, political organising, public speaking and advocacy, she brought issues such as abortion rights, equal pay, sexism and domestic violence into mainstream public debate.
A defining voice of the feminist movement
Steinem emerged as a prominent feminist leader during a period of major social and political change in the US. In 1968, she helped establish New York magazine, where her essay “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation” brought her growing recognition as a campaigner for women’s rights.
Her involvement in feminist activism deepened in 1969 after she attended an abortion speak-out at a New York church. Steinem had herself undergone an abortion in London when she was 22, at a time when the procedure was illegal in many circumstances.
The experience became a turning point in her life and strengthened her commitment to reproductive rights.
In 1971, she co-founded Ms. Magazine, which became an important platform for the feminist movement. The publication addressed subjects including abortion, sexism, equal pay and domestic violence, challenging the traditional magazine content aimed at women at the time.
An early issue famously carried the names of 52 women, including Steinem, who said they had undergone abortions. The campaign called for abortion to be legalised in the US before the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Building organisations for women’s rights
Steinem’s activism extended well beyond journalism. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus along with former US Representatives Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm and writer Betty Friedan.
She was also involved in establishing several other organisations, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Women’s Media Center, Voters for Choice and the Ms. Foundation for Women.
Throughout her career, Steinem stressed that feminism had to include women from different racial and social backgrounds. She frequently acknowledged the influence of Black women and women of colour on the feminist movement.
“If you’ve suffered discrimination, you’re sensitive to it on every level,” she said in a 2015 interview with The New Yorker, highlighting the importance of listening to women’s experiences.
Steinem described herself as an “entrepreneur of social change” and said her work was fundamentally about listening to women and sharing their stories.
From investigative journalism to activism
Steinem’s career began in journalism after she graduated from Smith College and started working as a freelance writer.
One of her early assignments involved working undercover as a Playboy Bunny for 11 days in 1963 for Show magazine. Her resulting two-part investigation, “A Bunny’s Tale”, exposed the low pay and sexist treatment experienced by Playboy employees who worked as waitstaff.
The investigation became widely known and was later adapted into a television film in 1985, starring Kirstie Alley.
Her journalism increasingly became intertwined with her activism, particularly as she challenged social attitudes towards women and questioned institutions that she believed restricted their choices.
Steinem was also outspoken about marriage and gender roles. She argued that women could not achieve full equality outside the home unless men also shared responsibilities within it.
A prominent advocate for reproductive rights
Reproductive freedom remained one of Steinem’s central causes throughout her career.
Through Ms. Magazine and her political activism, she helped bring abortion rights to the forefront of the women’s movement. Her advocacy continued for decades as debates over reproductive rights remained politically and socially contentious in the US.
Her personal experiences influenced her position, but Steinem also framed reproductive freedom as a question of women’s ability to make decisions about their own lives.
Her broader philosophy was centred on choice and independence. When she married South African businessman and environmentalist David Bale at the age of 66, she said the decision reflected the feminist principle that women should be able to choose what is right for them at different stages of life.
Bale, who was the father of actor Christian Bale, died from brain cancer in 2003.
Honoured with America’s highest civilian award
Steinem’s contribution to American public life received one of its highest recognitions in 2013, when then-President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The honour recognised her decades of work advancing women’s rights and social equality.
Despite her age, Steinem continued to write, speak and participate in advocacy well into her 80s. She authored numerous books, including “Marilyn: Norma Jean”, a 1986 work about Marilyn Monroe, and “Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem”.
She also published collections of essays and remained an influential commentator on gender and social justice.
Her legacy extended to film and television
Steinem’s life and career became the subject of several film, television and theatrical projects.
Director Julie Taymor’s 2020 film “The Glorias” portrayed different stages of Steinem’s life and was based on her 2015 bestselling autobiography, “My Life on the Road”.
She was also the subject of the 2018 play “Gloria: A Life” and the 2011 HBO documentary “Gloria: In Her Own Words”.
Steinem herself contributed to documentary projects. She narrated and conceived the idea for the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary “Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories”, which examined child abuse.
She also produced the Lifetime film “Better Off Dead” and hosted “Woman”, a documentary series examining violence against women.
A life shaped by early experiences
Born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem was the younger of two daughters. Her father was a travelling antique dealer, and her family’s frequent movements meant she did not attend school regularly until around the seventh grade.
Her parents separated when she was 11. She subsequently lived with and cared for her mother, who experienced a mental breakdown and depression.
Steinem later said those experiences shaped her understanding of social injustice and influenced her views on marriage and women’s independence.
Her childhood experiences, journalism and political activism eventually came together to form a career that transformed the public conversation around gender equality.
From her investigative reporting and the creation of Ms. Magazine to her work in political organising and reproductive-rights advocacy, Steinem remained a prominent figure in American feminism for more than five decades.
Her death at 92 brings to a close the life of one of the most influential figures of the modern women’s rights movement, while the organisations, publications and ideas she helped build continue to shape debates on equality and women’s rights.
