Feminist Activist Gloria Steinem Dies at 92

Michael Brennan//Getty ImagesFeminist activist, writer and editor Gloria Steinem has passed away at the age of 92. Her passing was confirmed by her foundation, who wrote on Instagram “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. 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.”The statement went on to say that Gloria “spent her recent years doing the two things she loved most: being in community with others and writing. She has welcomed hundreds of guests into her living room for Talking Circles, a tradition she insisted will continue long after she is no longer with us. As Gloria wrote in 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.’ 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.”“Gloria often quoted the adage: ‘The flap of a butterfly’s wing can change the weather hundreds of miles away,’” the statement continued. “Gloria loved the tradition of lighting signal fires on hills to light the way to the other side of the mountain. Lighting your own candle for Gloria makes you part of this global and celestial community circle. In lieu of flowers, Gloria has asked that those wishing to honor her with a gift, may make a donation to Gloria’s Foundation.”Gloria Marie Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. For the first part of her life, she traveled the country with her parents in a house trailer, spending parts of the year in Michigan, California, and Florida. She didn't attend school regularly until she was 11.When her parents got divorced, she moved back to Toledo with her mom, and for much of her teen years she was her caretaker. When she was a senior in high school, she moved to Washington D.C. to live with her older sister.Susan Wood/Getty Images//Getty Images"In the 1950s, once you married you became what your husband was, so it seemed like the last choice you'd ever have… I'd already been the very small parent of a very big child—my mother. I didn't want to end up taking care of someone else," she told People in an interview in 1992.Steinem went to Smith College, where she studied government. After graduating in 1956 she went to India on a fellowship, and while she was there she participated in protests against the government. She moved back the U.S. afterwards, and started writing in New York City.Her first major article was an expose on the Playboy Club. She went undercover as a bunny and wrote about her experience for a magazine.Bettmann//Getty ImagesAfter that piece, her writing became more political and she helped start New York magazine in the late 1960s with a column called "The City Politic." She faced sexism in her early career, and said in a video for MAKERS in 2014 that, when she filed a story, one of her editors would give her the option to go to a hotel with him in the afternoon or mail his letters. "Needless to say, I filed the letters, but I just assumed you had to put up with this," she recounted.For one assignment, she went to cover an abortion hearing, and she said she didn't understand the need for a women's movement until then. "I had had an abortion when I first graduated from college and had never told anyone, and I listened to women testify about all they had to go through... to get an illegal abortion and I begin to understand that my experience was not just mine, but an almost universal female experience," she told MAKERS.She turned to activism after that point, and she founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in the summer of 1971 with Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, and Shirley Chisholm.Robert R. McElroy//Getty ImagesThat same year, she started the first feminist-specific magazine, Ms. The magazine focused on issues like abortions, the sexism of the English language, and how women could stand up against societal norms. Some of the first story ideas, from a confidential memo recovered by New York magazine in 2011, were, "The politics of sex. Don't believe him when he says politics begin in Washington. Politics begin at home." Another was, "A secretary is an office wife." The first copy of the magazine sold out in eight days.“When I suggested political stories to The New York Times Sunday Magazine, my editor just said something like, ‘I don’t think of you that way,’" Gloria told New York, which was part of what inspired her to start Ms.She became deeply concerned with child abuse in America, and created a documentary for HBO in 1993 called "Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories," which won an Emmy. It explored how people survive abuse through the splitting off of personalities.In 2013, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in the United States. "Because of her work across America and the world, more women are afforded the respect and opportunities they deserve, but she also changed how women thought about themselves," he said in his speech about her.Her one piece of advice to young girls, according to Obama, was not to listen to her advice—but instead to listen to the voice inside themselves and follow that.Brooks Kraft//Getty ImagesShe became an adviser to TIME'S UP in 2017, the organization started by some of the women in Hollywood impacted by the #MeToo movement. They decided to raise money for a legal defense fund for women in all industries who were victims of sexual harassment in the workplace."I feel as if now, for the first time, women are being believed. That’s the difference," she said. Gloria was married once, to entrepreneur David Bale from 2000-2003. They never had any children. She is survived, instead, by a legacy of lasting impact on women's rights in the United States.