The legacy of Gloria Steinem, journalist, feminist and campaigner for women’s rights

Gloria Steinem who was a political campaigner and feminist activist for the equality of women has died at the age of 92.

Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1934 to Leo and Ruth Steinem and led an itinerant lifestyle, travelling around with her parents which meant she did not attend full-time education until she was twelve. When her parents separated and her sister left home to attend college, she was left at home alone with her mother, who after a nervous breakdown, descended into a permanent state of mental illness.

Steinem went on to study for a degree in government at Smith College, Massachusetts

Despite her poor domestic upbringing, Steinem went on to study for a degree in government at Smith College, Massachusetts, a historic place of study where today it still proclaims, “Smith College educates women of promise for lives of distinction and purpose”. In Gloria Steinem’s case this was very appropriate since she graduated with distinction and went to have a successful career in journalism and more.

Gloria Steinem was born at a time and in a world where the suffragette movement had largely achieved its aims and the protest for the equality for women had subsided. It was perhaps her experience of witnessing the indifferent treatment that her ill mother received at the hands of male medical staff that prompted her to follow a path to correct the injustices which women were subjected to in society.

After university in 1956, Steinem went to India for two years on a research scholarship which included helping village women organise non-violent protests against government policies and this too may have instigated her interest in grassroots activism to achieve change. On her return she began a career as a freelance journalist.

Steinem made her journalistic name in 1963 by going undercover as a Playboy Bunny in the New York Playboy Club

Writing first for Esquire then the New York Magazine, Steinem made her journalistic name in 1963 by going undercover as a Playboy Bunny in the New York Playboy Club where male members were served food and drinks by scantily clad women dressed up in bunny rabbit costumes. She observed the humiliating condition in which the women in the club were subjected to and wrote the article about them entitled ‘A Bunny’s Tale’.

In 1968 she heard a speech from a radical feminist group, “The Redstockings” at which women spoke about their experiences of having illegal abortions. Steinem regarded women as blameless in their predicament because she too had experienced an unwanted pregnancy. She thought it was the sexist, misogynist system that was making women to have dangerous terminations. Later that year she was moved to write an article “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation”.

In 1971, in the height of the second wave of feminism, Gloria Steinem founded Ms Magazine

In 1971, in the height of the second wave of feminism, Gloria Steinem founded Ms Magazine, the first print magazine owned and run by women. The first issue sold out in eight days. There was obviously an audience for its contents. Ms Magazine had debates about how radical it should be and eventually went ad free to be independent of the influence of male opinionated advertisers. Ms Magazine was sold in 1987 then taken back into private ownership under Liberty Media and then sold again to the Feminist Majority Foundation in 2001. Ms Magazine survives today in print and online and is still at the forefront of feminist opinion. It is a testament of how Gloria Steinem influenced feminist ideas and became an adopted leader of the women’s liberation movement.

She advocated for the legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage, and equal rights and pay for women

From 1970 on she gave regular speech tours to highlight and bring awareness of the depths of conditioning people are subjected to with their clichéd opinions about women. Steinem advocated for the legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and equal rights and pay for women. She celebrated the US Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in the case of Roe v Wade, which granted women in the USA the constitutional right to abortion. Nearly half a century later she witnessed the reversal of this decision.

Steinem was subjected to scathing criticism throughout her life from both men and women opponents. This did not detract from her mission to make the world an equal and better place for women.

Gloria Steinem was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Obama

In recognition of her lifetime’s work in advocating for women’s rights Gloria Steinem was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Obama. Ritgers University also established a chair for equal representation of women in the media. She donated her residence in New York for women to meet, speak and organise.

The rise of social media should have been an avenue by which feminism should have promoted equal rights and status for women but instead it seems to have been taken over by men who spread resentment against women. Reflecting on this Gloria Steinem said in an interview in 2022 “I feel mad as hell we are still dealing with the same old issues”. Indeed.

By our society correspondent