
Gloria Steinem
feminist icon
Gloria Steinem. Feminist icon. Writer. Speaker. Stirrer-upper and "hope-aholic". And, one-time aspiring tap dancer.
Born in 1934 in Ohio, feminism + inequality weren't on her radar until after college. Known—and ridiculed—for going undercover as a Playboy Bunny, she wrote for women's and fashion magazines {covering increasingly edgy topics over time} before helping start New York Magazine in the late 1960s.
She's best known for co-founding the groundbreaking Ms. Magazine with her National Women's Political Caucus co-founder Letty Cottin Pogrebin and others. She brought women's lib out of urban salons + college dorms and into living rooms everywhere. At 80, she's still at it.
from 1960s through today | the face of the women's lib movement
listening | empathy
1972 | co-founded Ms. Magazine
2005 | co-founded the Women's Media Center {creators of Take Your Daughter to Work Day}
2013 | awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom {for "waging peace," she says}
from | to
journalist | iconic leader of the women's movement
born on
March 25, 1934
born in
Toledo, Ohio
birth name
Gloria Steinem
citizen of
The United States of America
daughter of
Ruth and Leo Steinem
~ her early life was shaped by the role she played in helping her mother, a pioneering journalist whose depression led to a nervous breakdown, and her father who crisscrossed the country searching for work and eventually abandoned his family ~
granddaughter of
Pauline Perlmutter Steinem
~ women's rights activist and chair of the educational committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association ~
sister of
Susanne Steinem Patch
~ her older sister ~
grew up in
many places | her father had the family up-and-move on a whim
lives in
New York City
educated at
did not spend a full year in any one school until she was 11 years old because her parents moved frequently
Western High School, Washington, DC
~ completed her senior year | 1952 ~
Smith College
~ Phi Beta Kappa | 1956 ~
loved studying
government
married to
David Bale
~ married in 2000 | he died of brain cancer in 2003 ~
advocate for
gender and race equality
influenced by
Gandhi
tweets
@GloriaSteinem
image credits
Warren K. Leffler | Library of Congress
MDCarchives | Wikimedia Commons | CC A-SA 3.0
collapse bio bits"Once upon a time … a Liberated Woman was somebody who had sex before marriage and a job afterward."
After black power, women's liberation | april 1969
"Women's liberation will be men's liberation, too."
After black power, women's liberation | april 1969
"Never in my life have I identified myself as a Christian, but wherever there is antisemitism, I identify as a Jew."
Gloria Steinem | unknown
"The challenge to all of us…is to live a revolution, not to die for one."
Living the Revolution | may 1970
"Divisions of age, race, class, and sex are old-fashioned and destructive."
Living the Revolution | may 1970
"We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism."
Address to the Women of America | june 1971
"When I got to the point of serious opposition, I thought it was a step forward from ridicule."
Women's Media Center | january 2011
"Now we know that women can do what men can do...but we don’t know that men can do what women can do."
Gloria Steinem on Progress and Women's Rights | april 2012
"The women's movement and the civil rights movement and the Chinese revolution and practically all big change starts with small groups. You can't do it by yourself."
Makers: Women Who Make America | february 2013
"It was always clear to me that feminists were going to be called lesbians…so the only answer was to make clear that being a lesbian was as honorable as any other way of living."
New York magazine | march 2014
"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."
Gloria Steinem's website | viewed | july 22, 2014
"Actually, 'yes' is perhaps the most erotic word in the English language."
'Yes' is Better than 'No' | september 2014
"Everyone worries about what we should be doing. Do whatever you can."
Forever Young: A Public Dialogue between bell hooks & Gloria Steinem | october 2014
"I thought they invented the feminist movement. I’ve learned feminism disproportionately from black women."
Women of Power Summit | march 2015
curated with care by Meghan Miller Brawley {july 2014 ~ updated may 2015}
"Address to the Women of America" | National Women's Political Caucus | july 10, 1971
Graphic design student Emily Mullett made this short animation of Steinem's memorable quote from her speech at the founding of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971.
Emily Mullett
Presidential Medal of Freedom interview
In an interview with the White House after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for what she calls "waging peace," Gloria Steinem talks about the gender divide, and how artificial expectations of gender behavior are the root of violence.
White House