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Gloria Steinem, writer and icon of the women’s movement, has died. She was 92.
The enduring feminist “passed away peacefully” on Wednesday at her New York City home, “surrounded by some of the many who loved her,” according to a joint post shared on her and her foundation’s Instagram accounts.
“Gloria’s near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end,” the message continued, noting that her “greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard.”
The post continued, in part: “Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humour.”
It concluded: “In lieu of flowers, Gloria has asked that those wishing to honour her with a gift may make a donation to Gloria’s Foundation.”
Gloria’s Foundation was established as “a birthplace for many organizations and limitless ideas, a home base for radical community care and compassion and a living organ of the feminist movement,” according to its website.
Her dedication to activism began early
Born on March 25, 1934, Steinem cared for her mother after her parents divorced, and watching her suffer from mental illness formed her understanding of social injustices, she noted in her 2015 book My Life on the Road.
Ruth shared the same passion for activism as her daughter, but gender limitations didn’t allow her to act on it.
“My mother paid a high price for caring so much, yet being able to do so little about it. In this way, she led me toward an activist place where she herself could never go,” Steinem wrote, per The Guardian .
Steinem went on to make social and political change her life’s mission, penning political columns and features for New York magazine, Esquire and the New York Times Magazine, championing women’s rights by shining a light on topics like sexuality and reproductive and workplace rights.
She also co-founded Ms. magazine as well as organizations like the Women’s Action Alliance, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the Women’s Media Center, which she co-founded with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan.
Honouring her work
“The first thing I feel whenever I’m in Gloria Steinem’s presence is safe,” Fonda said in 2019 .
“Though she is barraged by demands on her time, she is always willing to stop and listen, wanting to help, to understand,” she continued. “I know there are literally millions of women — I have personally spoken to hundreds of them — whose lives have been changed by Gloria’s words.”
Steinem was a fierce advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment, even testifying before the U.S. Senate in 1970 in support of it.
Her efforts to pass the amendment were chronicled in Mrs. America, in which Rose Byrne portrayed her. Steinem’s life story was also the centre of 2020’s The Glorias, with actresses Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Lulu Wilson, Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander portraying the legend across 80 years.
Steinem was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama, who recognized her lifetime of activism.
“She’s been called a ‘champion of notice,’” he said during the ceremony . “She’s alert to all the ways, large and small, that women had been and, in some cases, continue to be treated unfairly just because they’re women.”
Despite comparing marriage to slavery, Steinem wed British businessman and environmentalist David Bale (father of actor Christian Bale) on Sept. 3, 2000, when she was 66.
They were married for three years before Bale died from brain lymphoma in 2003 at the age of 62.
In a 2016 New York Times profile, Steinem reflected on all the work she still wanted to do.
“My funeral will be a fundraiser.”