Who Was Gloria Steinem? Feminist Icon And Co-founder Of Ms Magazine Dies At 92

Gloria Steinem, the pioneering American feminist, journalist and co-founder of Ms. magazine, has died at 92. One of the most recognisable figures of the US women's movement, Steinem spent more than five decades campaigning for gender equality, reproductive rights and women's rights. She died at her home in New York City on Wednesday, according to her foundation.

Fundación Princesa de Asturias said in a post on X, “Gloria Steinem, 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities, has died.”

“I don’t want to die saying but—” Steinem told in an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this year. “We have the idea that our lives are planned in order to be worthwhile. And that may be true in some cases,” she says, “but I think our ability to respond to and learn from the unexpected is really much more likely to be helpful.”

Who Was Gloria Steinem?

Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1934. She studied at Smith College, graduating in 1956. She began her career as a journalist.

Steinem became nationally prominent through her journalism and activism. Her 1963 undercover report about working as a Playboy Bunny was an important early journalistic breakthrough. She became a major figure in the women's movement in the late 1960s and 1970s and co-founded Ms. Magazine.

She died on Wednesday, her foundation said in ​an Instagram post on Thursday.

Steinem considered herself "an entrepreneur of social change," she had said, as cited by Reuters.

"I want to do justice to the women I meet, to tell their stories," she told the New Yorker magazine in 2015. "It's ​making connections, and using myself to listen, because we can't empower women without listening to their stories."

How Did Gloria Steinem Shape Feminism?

In 1971, Steinem helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus, alongside former US Representatives Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm and writer Betty Friedan. Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, had played a major role in ushering in the second wave of feminism, as per Reuters.

Steinem went on to establish several other organisations, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Women's Media Center, Voters for Choice and the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Her contribution to the women's movement was formally recognised in 2013, when then-US President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honour.

Steinem also became instantly recognisable for her distinctive appearance, including her long, blonde-streaked, centre-parted hair and aviator glasses. Her glamorous and contemporary image helped make her a prominent symbol of the feminist movement, while she stressed that feminism should represent women of every race.

Became one of the most recognisable public voices of second-wave feminism.