Gloria Steinem, the trailblazing feminist journalist best known for embodying the American second wave, has died at 92.
Steinem was a co-founder of Ms., a magazine that debuted the honorific unrelated to marital status. From 1971 to 1987, monthly issues of Ms. found their way into desperate living rooms, where they radicalized and consoled girls and women. The mag ran endorsements for both Shirley Chisholm and a re-empowered Wonder Woman. It broke stories about the wage gap, the Equal Rights Amendment, date rape, and domestic violence.
Many articles in its pages set the national tone for the (late) Roe v. Wade ruling, including the famous open letter that ran in 1971. Aiming to de-stigmatize abortion and demanding “a repeal of all laws that restrict our reproductive freedom,” the letter was signed by dozens of celebrities who admitted to having abortions—including Susan Sontag, Nora Ephron, Lillian Hellman, and Billie Jean King.
Steinem typified and took flack for embodying a very specific femininity. As a cis, white, straight, thin, conventionally beautiful person, her early activism centered conundrums specific to those categories. (See: her 1963 expose in Show magazine, “A Bunny’s Tale,” reporting on indignities at the Playboy Club.) The Black feminist Alice Walker famously left Ms. over elitism charges in the 80s. But Gloria’s personal remit and multicultural commitments grew wider over her career.
