Story summary
Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing feminist and social activist, has died at 92. She was a co-founder of Ms. Magazine, a prominent voice in the women's rights movement, and a fierce advocate for feminist causes throughout her life. Born in Toledo, Ohio on March 25, 1934, Steinem graduated from Smith College in 1956. After studying in India on a fellowship, she returned to the US and began her career as a journalist, reporting on topics such as degrading conditions in Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire.
Steinem was known for her charismatic personality and her ability to inspire generations of women to fight for equality. She founded several organizations, including the National Women's Political Caucus and the Women's Media Center, and wrote extensively on feminist issues. Her writings and speeches tackled topics such as abortion, marriage, and politics.
Steinem continued to be an active advocate for women's rights into her 80s, speaking out on issues of importance to her, including genital mutilation. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013 for her commitment to activism.
According to her social media pages, Steinem died peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by loved ones. Her death has been met with tributes from around the world, praising her tireless work and dedication to feminism.
Written for “Gloria Steinem's Death” on 2026-09-09,
grounded in this article and the 28 other(s) covering the same event.
A version of the below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land.
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version → appear → newsletter
The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture.
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newsletter → come → politics
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you → subscribe → trial
What made Gloria Steinem so dangerous was that she was sassy, charismatic, fierce, funny, and attractive.
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she → make → ?
She blew apart the right-wing trope that feminists were ugly, humorless, bitter man-haters.
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feminists → blow → trope
In 1988, Rush Limbaugh included on his list of “undeniable truths” the assertion that “feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.”
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feminism → include → society
In 1992, Pat Robertson, the Christian right leader, derided the “feminist agenda” as “a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.”
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that → deride → capitalism
Twenty-nine years later, this sentiment was hiding not too deeply in JD Vance’s comment that the United States was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.
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rest → hide → country
Yet no one could accuse Gloria, the pioneering feminist who died this week at the age of 92, of eschewing fun…and sex.
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who → accuse → fun
A skilled writer and activist, she brought wit and strategic savvy to the women’s movement.
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she → bring → movement
I knew her through her work with Voters for Choice, a political action committee, and the Women’s Media Center, which she founded with actor Jane Fonda and poet Robin Morgan in 2005 to increase the visibility of women in the media.
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she → know → media
Every encounter I had with her sparkled with energy.
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I → have → energy
She had plenty of juice that she generously shared nonstop with those around her.
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she → have → her
Not surprisingly, she knew everyone and was an enthusiastic networker.
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she → know → everyone
Once I was backstage at a Madonna concert in Madison Square Garden, where Voters for Choice was holding a fundraising reception.
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Voters → hold → reception
At one point, Gloria and Townshend engaged in a deep conversation that went on for a while.
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that → engage → while
Afterward, I asked her what they had been discussing so intensely.
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they → ask → what
She told me that they had been friends for years because Townshend and his bandmates had helped finance the first shelter in England for women escaping domestic violence.
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Townshend → tell → violence
“C’mon,” she said.
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she → say → C’m
“Let me introduce you and make a connection.”
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me → let → connection
In a statement, Fonda noted:
Gloria, in her graceful, kind, and deeply intelligent way, changed the world we live in.
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we → note → world
For decades, she trudged through every airport in the country, in sandals and a trench, carrying her own suitcase, packed with a few black clothes, hair curlers, and steam iron, in order to speak to women—at conferences, town halls, consciousness raising groups.
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she → trudge → conferences
No group was too small to deserve Gloria’s time.
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group → deserve → time
This is how she built the new women’s movement.
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she → build → movement
And for a good part of those trips, she insisted she be joined by her friends Dorothy Pitman Hughes and, later, Florynce Kennedy, two prominent Black activists who helped show that this women’s movement addressed race as well as gender.
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movement → insist → race
She had a clever, often funny way to say just what was needed to surface feelings and ideas about where we belonged, what our inchoate yearnings meant, whether power was a word that women could and should embrace for ourselves, and how different power looked when held in men’s hands alone.
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power → have → hands
She helped so many of us find our voices and the courage to stand up for ourselves and for other women…
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many → help → women
I believe that she lives on in the changed lives of many women who don’t consider themselves feminists or part of the women’s movement.
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themselves → believe → movement
I’ve met many such women who because of what Gloria said or wrote gained the courage to leave bad marriages, start their own businesses, persuade husbands to help with household chores.
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Gloria → meet → chores
Julie Burton, the president and CEO of the Women’s Media Center, recalled:
Gloria once wrote a letter to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, author of the Roe v. Wade decision, thanking him for saving more women’s lives than anyone in US history.
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Gloria → recall → history
We could say the same about Gloria’s impact on women’s lives, because for decades she was at the forefront of the struggle for political and social equality and justice for women.
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she → say → women
She used her voice and writing to raise visibility for women and the issues of our time.
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She → use → time
We came to take it for granted that she would always be where she was most needed—at the podium, on TV, on the plane, on the phone, or at the computer—to make the ideal of social justice a reality.
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ideal → come → justice
Her phrases have become mottoes of our time.
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phrases → become → time
I remember the first time Gloria wowed me.
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Gloria → remember → me
She was describing what I would call the Gloria Steinem role-reversal principle.
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I → describe → what
This is a thought experiment: In any given situation or controversy, flip the genders of those involved and see what changes.
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what → give → those
Her most famous example of this was an essay titled “If Men Could Menstruate” that she wrote in 1978 for Ms. magazine, which she co-founded.
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she → title → which
Here’s a taste:
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taste → ’ → ?
What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?
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women → happen → instance
…and 33 more, not listed.
