Gloria Steinem, pioneering feminist, founder of Ms. Magazine, and the unflagging force behind the Equal Rights Amendment, has died at the age of 92.
Steinem’s death was announced Thursday on social media. “Yesterday, Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her. Gloria’s near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end,” her representatives wrote.
“Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.” No cause of death was provided.
Her representatives asked her fans to light a candle in her honor and to donate to her charity, Gloria’s Foundation.
Steinem was at the forefront of second-wave feminism in the Sixties and Seventies, and throughout her Presidential Medal of Freedom-winning career, fought for issues like abortion rights, women’s rights, workplace gender equality, domestic violence prevention and more.
As a writer in 1963 — the year The Feminine Mystique and the Bell Jar were published — Steinem wrote “A Bunny’s Tale” an undercover expose about the daily humiliations the cocktail waitresses known as “bunnies” endured — including, for some reason, a pelvic exam — to get and keep a job at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club.
As Steinem liked to say, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off."
In 1971, Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine. “For more than half a century, Steinem helped bring feminist ideas, voices and movements into the mainstream through journalism, organizing and activism—and helped build Ms. into what it remains today: not simply a magazine, but a movement. She continued working for equality until the end of her life,” the magazine wrote in its obituary to Steinem on Thursday.
“’At the time that first issue [of Ms.] was published, there were local feminist publications here and in some other countries, but there was no national voice for those of us who had the radical idea that women are people,’ Steinem wrote for Ms.’ 50th anniversary in 2022. ‘I didn’t know what the response would be, especially on newsstands, with no precedent or place for a women’s magazine that wasn’t about home, family and children. The response was shocking. … It sold out in eight days.’”
Katie Couric wrote on social media Thursday, “For more than five decades, Gloria fought tirelessly for women’s equality and reproductive freedom, challenged gender inequality, and helped transform the feminist movement. As a journalist and activist, she brought women’s experiences into the mainstream, and inspired generations of women to find and use their own voices… I am so grateful to have known her and to have been the beneficiary of her wisdom, intellect, and insight.”
Former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden wrote, “Gloria Steinem understood that women’s equality begins with the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, health, and futures. For decades, she fought to make that freedom real for generations of women and girls. She spoke up when it was difficult, listened to those whose voices too often went unheard, and never stopped pushing our country forward.”
Steinem spent her final years continuing to write, her representatives noted Thursday, including her forthcoming book An Unexpected Life. “I have now lived for more than fifty years in this brownstone, in rooms that have witnessed lives before mine, and will know others after I am gone,” she writes.
“This book, along with her commitment to her home becoming a center for social justice movements, are among the many gifts Gloria has given the world with the hope they have ripple effects for generations to come,” her family added. “Gloria often quoted the adage: ‘The flap of a butterfly’s wing can change the weather hundreds of miles away.'”
