Gloria Steinem, Trailblazing Leader of the Feminist Movement, Dies at 92

Gloria Steinem , the writer, activist and icon of the feminist movement, has died. She was 92.

Steinem “passed away peacefully” at her home in New York City, “surrounded by many who loved her,” according to posts on her and her foundation’s Instagram accounts .

Considered by some to be the world’s most famous feminist, the Toledo, Ohio, native began her career as a journalist, penning political columns and features for New York magazine and writing for such other publications as Esquire and The New York Times Magazine .

She also received an Emmy nomination (shared with David Frost, Buck Henry and others) in 1965 for writing on the series That Was the Week That Was . Related Stories Movies Carla Jeffery, Disney's 'Zombies' Actress, Dies at 33 News Tim Curry's Cause of Death Revealed

In one of her early endeavors, Steinem went undercover for 11 days as a Bunny at a Playboy Club for a 1963 exposé in Show magazine and experienced punishing hours for low pay and a side of sexual harassment. Show touted Steinem as “a writer who combines the hidden qualities of a Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Smith College with the more obvious ones of an ex-dancer and beauty queen.”

Shortly after the article was published, she said she was unable to land “serious journalistic assignments” because of her Bunny experience. (The story was adapted in 1985 as the ABC telefilm A Bunny’s Tale , starring Kirstie Alley.)

During her career, Steinem demonstrated a keen grasp of the dual levers of power, working in both politics and media to advance her causes. Shortly after graduating from the all-female Smith College in 1956, she served as director of the Independent Research Service, an organization secretly backed by the CIA. Although she denied it at the time, she later defended her interactions with the agency as innocuous.

Steinem also co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971 and Ms. magazine a year later, and she produced and hosted HBO’s Emmy-winning 1993 child-abuse documentary Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories and Viceland’s Emmy-nominated 2016 docuseries Woman , which chronicled those who faced violence around the world.”

The first thing I feel whenever I’m in Gloria Steinem’s presence is safe,” Jane Fonda, with whom she co-founded the Women’s Media Center in 2004, 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. 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.”

Covering 80 years in the life and work of one of the key figures of the American feminist movement, whose influence has stretched across generations, Julie Taymor’s nontraditional biopic The Glorias certainly can’t be faulted for lack of ambition”]

The year 2020 saw two major narrative projects recognizing Steinem as a fixture of 20th century culture.