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Gloria Steinem

American activist and journalist (1934–2026)

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Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine and co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, she published "After Black Power, Women's Liberation", an article that brought her national attention and positioned her as a feminist leader. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus, which provided training and support for women seeking elected and appointed office. Also in 1971, she co-founded the Women's Action Alliance, which until 1997 supported a network of feminist activists and worked to advance feminist causes and legislation. In 1992, Steinem helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day, an occasion for young girls to learn about future career opportunities. In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that "works to make women visible and powerful in the media".

She traveled internationally as an organizer and lecturer and was a media spokeswoman on issues of equality. In 2015, Steinem, alongside two Nobel Peace laureates (Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia) and other prominent women peace activists, undertook a journey from the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang, to South Korea, crossing the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

Early life and education

Gloria Marie Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, to Ruth (née Nuneviller) and Leo Steinem. Her mother was Presbyterian, mostly of German (including Prussian) and some Scottish descent. Her father was Jewish, the son of immigrants from Württemberg, Germany, and Radziejów, Poland. Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, chaired the educational committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association, was a delegate to the 1908 International Council of Women, and was the first woman to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education. She was also a leader in the movement for vocational education and at a time when it cost $500 to get a Jew out of Germany, she rescued many members of her family from the Holocaust.

The Steinems lived and traveled in a trailer, from which Leo carried out his trade as a roaming antiques dealer. Before Gloria was born, her mother, Ruth, then age 34, had (according to Steinem) "a 'nervous breakdown', as [Ruth] and everyone else called it" that left her an invalid, trapped in delusional fantasies that sometimes turned violent. Steinem said that Ruth changed "from an energetic, fun-loving, book-loving" woman into "someone who was afraid to be alone, who could not hang on to reality long enough to hold a job, and who could rarely concentrate enough to read a book". Ruth spent long periods in and out of sanatoriums for the mentally ill. Steinem was ten years old when her parents separated in 1944. Her father went to California to find work, while she and her mother continued to live together in Toledo.

Although her parents divorced under the strain of her mother's illness, Steinem did not attribute it to male chauvinism. She said she "understood and never blamed him for the breakup". The impact of these events shaped her personality. Her father, a traveling salesman, had never provided financial stability, and his departure aggravated their situation. Steinem concluded that her mother's inability to hold a job reflected broader hostility toward working women. She also believed that doctors' apathy toward her mother stemmed from similar anti-woman animus. Years later, Steinem described her mother's experience as pivotal to her understanding of social injustices. These perspectives convinced Steinem that women lacked social and political equality.

Steinem attended Waite High School in Toledo and Western High School in Washington, D.C., graduating from the latter in 1952 while living with her older sister Susanne Steinem Patch. She then studied government at Smith College, an institution from which she received her A.B. magna cum laude and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1956.

In 1957, Steinem had an abortion. She was referred for the procedure by Dr. John Sharpe, a British physician. Years later, Steinem dedicated her memoir My Life on the Road (2015) to him. She wrote, "Dr. John Sharpe of London, who in 1957, a decade before physicians in England could legally perform an abortion for any reason other than the health of the woman, took the considerable risk of referring for an abortion a twenty-two-year-old American on her way to India. Knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate, he said, 'You must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life.'"

In the late 1950s, Steinem spent two years in India as a Chester Bowles Asian Fellow. She was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and later modeled her campaign work after Gandhi's independence movement. After returning to the United States, she served as director of the Independent Research Service, an organization funded by foundations that were turn funded in secret by the CIA. She worked to send non-communist American students to the 1959 World Youth Festival. In 1960, she was hired by Warren Publishing as the first employee of Help! magazine.

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