NEW YORK CITY — Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated from Smith College in 1956 and traveled to India on a scholarship after graduating from college.

In 1963, she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny to write an exposé on working conditions. In 1968, she helped found New York magazine, where she worked as a political columnist and feature writer.

She co-founded Ms. Magazine with Dorothy Pittman Hughes. She served as a consulting editor for the publication and was instrumental in its move to be published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.

She realized the need for such a publication during her early career. She said in an HBO documentary that she realized as a journalist that there really was nothing for women to read that was controlled by women.

She co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1972. At the founding event, she stated that sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences, have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups, and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends, and that they were talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen, or those earned, and that they were really talking about humanism.

Her activism extended to reproductive rights. She had an abortion in London at age 22. She later reflected on the experience in public statements.

She said in the Guardian that abortion is supposed to make us a bad person, but she never felt that, and she used to sit and try and figure out how old the child would be, trying to make herself feel guilty, but she never could, and she thought the person who said that if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament was right.

She connected reproductive control to broader systemic issues. She said in a public statement that it doesn’t surprise her that the most virulent anti-abortion measures are coming from Alabama and other southern states because racism and sexism are always intertwined, and that you can’t perpetuate racism without controlling women and reproduction.

She authored several bestsellers, including Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Moving Beyond Words, and Marilyn on the life of Marilyn Monroe. She also wrote the memoir My Life on the Road, published in 2015.

In her writings, she addressed personal history and family dynamics. She said in People magazine that she’d already been the very small parent of a very big child — her mother, and she didn’t want to end up taking care of someone else.

She also discussed her views on marriage and independence. She said on NPR that she really was desperate, and she just knew that if she went home and married, which she would've had to do, it would be to the wrong person; it would be to a life that wasn't hers, that wasn't hers at all.

She married David Bale in 2000. She battled breast cancer in the 1980s and was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia in the 1990s.

Her forthcoming memoir is titled An Unexpected Life. In it, she reflected on her long-term residence, writing that she has now lived for more than fifty years in this brownstone, in rooms that have witnessed lives before hers, and will know others after she is gone.

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. She co-founded the Women’s Media Center in 2004.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised her impact. Clinton said on CBS Mornings that she was one of the architects of the entire structure of women's equality, tearing down those obstacles to young women being able to participate where their talents and hard work took them.

Clinton also noted her outlook, saying that Gloria was at heart an optimist, her activism was rooted in optimism, and that's a moral choice, and she made it every day.

Why It Matters

Gloria Steinem's death marks the passing of a central figure in second-wave feminism who helped institutionalize gender equality discourse through organizations like the National Women’s Political Caucus and Ms. Magazine. Her work established frameworks for discussing reproductive rights, economic disparity, and media representation that remain active topics in public policy and cultural debate.

The endurance of the issues she championed is noted by contemporaries, indicating that the structural barriers she identified persist. Her legacy includes a body of written work and organizational foundations that continue to operate, ensuring her influence extends beyond her lifetime through established institutions and published ideas.

Timeline

Gloria Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Gloria Steinem died on Wednesday, September 2. Gloria Steinem died at her home in New York City. The Gloria Steinem Foundation announced her death in a social media post on Thursday.

What's New

Additional reporting includes further statements from Steinem on identity and activism. She stated that nobody ever called her beautiful until she was publicly a feminist, and that was in her mid-30s, and it was clear that label was being assigned to her, and the most hurtful part is that you work very hard, and people say it’s because of your looks. She stated that that speak-out was the beginning of activism for her, and either our control over our own bodies is equal, regardless of sex or race, or we’re not living in a democracy. She stated that being a feminist means that you see the world as whole instead of half, and it shouldn’t need a name, and one day it won’t. She stated that she’d already been the very small parent of a very big child — her mother, and she didn’t want to end up taking care of someone else. She stated that nobody would choose one if they didn’t have to. She stated that sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences, have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups, and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends, and they were talking about a society in which there will be no roles other. She stated that she realized as a journalist that there really was nothing for women to read that was controlled by women. She stated that abortion is supposed to make us a bad person, but she never felt that, and she used to sit and try and figure out how old the child would be, trying to make herself feel guilty, but she never could, and she thought the person who said that if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament was right.