‘She listened.’ Gloria Steinem raised women’s voices through writing and activism.

Gloria Steinem inspired people to think, take action, and challenge the status quo.She also made them laugh.Inside the New York offices of Ms. magazine, the unofficial headquarters of the modern women’s movement she helped shape, discussions were often weighty. The staff would debate unequal pay, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, but Ms. Steinem brought levity and fun. Why We Wrote This Gloria Steinem overcame a fear of public speaking to become one of the most influential voices in the women’s rights movement. Her talent for making feminist ideas accessible to a broader audience helped bring about significant social change. “I don’t think there’s any office anywhere except maybe for a late-night talk show where people laughed so much,” says Suzanne Braun Levine, who served as the first editor of Ms. “And Gloria, of course, was the funniest. I mean, she had an unbelievably deadly wit and a creative wit. She was able to make you laugh even when something terrible was happening.”Ms. Steinem, who died Wednesday at 92 at her home in New York, spent some six decades championing equality in every aspect of life. She took things that were intensely private in a woman’s experience – abortion access, childcare, domestic work, sexual assault, unequal access to credit – and brought them out into the open through marches, speeches, talking circles, and the written word. As her work progressed, she linked gender equality to broader human rights, such as racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom from violence.With her signature middle-part hairstyle and, for a time, aviator glasses, she was the stylish and ultracool face of feminism who could charm people into listening to what she had to say.“Steinem was at the helm of creating this mass media space of feminism that didn’t exist before,” says Amy Farrell, a professor of American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Dickinson College. “She was extremely energetic. She was beautiful. She was savvy. She knew how to say things that would be both brave, but wouldn’t be a land mine. ... [She had] a kind of extraordinary power to ... claim a space of connection and sisterhood.”Forging a path into journalism and activismBorn in 1934 in Toledo, Ohio, Ms. Steinem, the younger of two daughters, spent much of her childhood on the road with her parents – her father was an itinerant antiques salesman – and attended school only intermittently until middle school. Between her parents’ separation and the time she left for Smith College in Massachusetts, she cared for her mother, who struggled with what Ms. Steinem recounted as severe mental illness. She later suggested that the experience might have influenced her decision not to have children – a choice she said she never regretted, despite being frequently questioned about it. Photo Courtesy of Gloria’s Foundation Gloria Steinem aboard the Queen Elizabeth in 1954, on her way to Europe for a study-abroad program at Smith College. After graduation, Ms. Steinem earned a postgraduate fellowship to India, where she met followers of Gandhi, which proved influential to her activism. Ms. Steinem graduated magna cum laude from Smith College in 1956 and spent two years on a postgraduate fellowship in India, alongside followers of Gandhi, which proved influential to her activism. She moved to New York City in 1960 to begin a journalism career at a time when newsrooms were dominated by men and when women writers were often relegated to covering subjects such as “food, makeup, babies, and celebrities,” as she told NPR in 2020.Her interest in covering politics was dissuaded by editors. One particular assignment had her writing about textured stockings that she once described as “a low point of my life.” But Ms. Steinem took on the assignment with gusto. “I was disappointed that this was what I was stuck with, but I did try to get absorbed. I researched the hell out of textured stockings,” she told The Guardian in 2011.Ms. Braun Levine, who later became the first woman editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, says Ms. Steinem was one of the most thorough writers she ever worked with.“She didn’t just sit down and write. She prepared. And she was brilliant,” says Ms. Braun Levine. “Her writing wasn’t accusatory, and it wasn’t snarky. And I think that made it especially persuasive.”Ms. Steinem famously worked undercover as a Playboy Bunny in 1963 for a piece for Show magazine to reveal the working conditions at New York’s Playboy Club in “A Bunny’s Tale.” When she later joined the editorial board of the newly launched New York Magazine, she took on more political topics, including covering an abortion “speak-out” in 1969, during which women shared their stories. She had not yet told anyone about her own secret abortion at the age of 22. Covering that event was what she would describe as a “big click” moment that launched her career as a women’s rights activist.She joined others already working in the women’s movement – Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug – and helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, which sought to increase women’s participation and power throughout politics. That same year, Ms. magazine was launched as an insert in New York Magazine. The editor at the time, Clay Felker, later funded the launch of Ms. under its own masthead in 1972, with Ms. Steinem as co-founder and editor. Irene Neves/Gloria’s Foundation Staff members of Ms. magazine, including Gloria Steinem (back, from left), Suzanne Braun Levine, Joanne Edgar, Pat Carbine, Letty Pogrebin, and Mary Thom, gather for a photo during the 1980s. Ms. Braun Levine, the first editor of the magazine, recalled that the magazine's office was full of laughter, even amid difficult stories. When the first standalone issue of Ms. hit newsstands, all 300,000 copies sold in eight days and drew an astonishing 20,000 letters, the Monitor reported in 1987.“Their dominant theme was, ‘At last I know I’m not alone,’” Ms. Steinem told the Monitor at the time, adding that it continued to be the primary message in the Ms. mailbag, with only the topics – not the theme – changing.“Lots and lots of married women, lots of women who were homemakers ... were looking at Ms. as a kind of lifeline,” says Dr. Farrell, also the author of “Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism.” “They didn’t have access to other people who were actually voicing, ‘I’m unhappy with this situation.’ And then all of a sudden, Ms. shows up on the newsstand, and they can grab a copy at the grocery store.”Ms. Steinem wasn’t opposed to marriage; she sought to enter into it on equal footing. While she was largely private about her romantic relationships, she married environmental and animal-rights activist David Bale in 2000, and they remained together until his death in 2003.“Feminism makes marriage possible. ... As long as marriage is a totally unequal partnership, it’s quite unattractive to me,” she told the Monitor in 1984.Balancing success and controversyMs. Steinem was also a divisive figure within the feminist movement, and to those who opposed it as detrimental to traditional family life. Ms. Friedan resented her growing popularity as “the face” of the women’s movement; others questioned her early work with the Independent Research Service, a group that sent American students to international youth festivals during the Cold War with large financial backing from the CIA. Gloria Steinem speaks at an event in Washington, Nov. 21, 1979. With Ms. Steinem are women's rights activist Bella Abzug, left, and then-former Rep. Patsy Mink of Hawaii. But despite her fear of public speaking and her polarizing reputation, she largely sought to bring people together. She loved holding meetings in large, comfortable chairs in her brownstone in New York, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a close friend, stressed during an interview on “CBS Mornings” as news of Ms. Steinem’s passing spread.“One of the things that I really admired about Gloria was the way she listened,” said Mrs. Clinton, who in 2016 was the first woman to earn a major party’s nomination for president. “She literally traveled our country – indeed, the world, particularly America – listening to people, listening to their stories, providing clever, witty responses to people who get discouraged, and telling all of us to keep going.”Ms. Steinem stepped away from Ms. magazine in 1987, though she remained closely involved, and turned her attention to writing books in addition to her political work. She helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day through the Ms. Foundation in the 1990s. She co-founded a youth-led reproductive rights and justice organization now known as URGE in 1992. In 2005, Ms. Steinem co-founded the Women’s Media Center.Ms. Steinem remained interested in the energy, experiences, and insights of young people and often returned to her alma mater to serve as a commencement speaker and to participate in book signings. In her walks across campus, she was “mobbed a bit by students,” says Beth Myers, director of special collections at Smith College Libraries, which houses Ms. Steinem’s archives. She adds that Ms. Steinem would take time to talk with students, take selfies, and ask them questions. “It seemed very important to her to connect with the students who were here,” Ms. Myers says.Ms. Steinem is yet to have a final word on her legacy. Her upcoming memoir, “An Unexpected Life,” is set to be released later this month.“The written word has always been magic to me. I hope it might be that for you, too,” she writes in the book, according to an advance copy viewed by the Monitor. “One of my greatest pleasures has always been opening a book and finding a friend.” Larry Downing/Reuters/File President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Gloria Steinem during a White House ceremony, Nov. 20, 2013. Ms. Braun Levine, her longtime friend, offers a final memory of the impact Ms. Steinem had on others.She recalled joining the group accompanying Ms. Steinem to the White House in 2013, when President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her writing and advocacy. Afterward, the group took photos with both the president and first lady Michelle Obama.“I happened to be standing next to Michelle,” says Ms. Braun Levine, “and she leaned over to me, and she said, ‘You know, whenever I’m around her, I want to do better.’”