I guess I’m at the time of life when all my heroes are dying off, because of course they were older than I and I’m no spring chicken. The latest to leave the planet is Gloria Steinem, who died yesterday at 92. Activist, feminist, one of the big figures of “second wave feminism” that promoted women’s equality in all spheres, and co-founder of Ms. Magazine which I read regularly, she was perhaps the first response you’d give when asked, “Name a famous feminist.” This is from her obituary in the New York Times: (archived here):
Gloria Steinem, the feminist crusader who, in galvanizing the modern women’s movement, helped millions of women develop a sense of self-worth and gain a measure of equality at home, at work and in society at large, died on Wednesday in New York City. She was 92.
Her death was announced in a post on social media, which did not give a cause. It said Ms. Steinem had died peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones.
Calling herself “an entrepreneur of social change,” Ms. Steinem helped usher in sweeping cultural transformations across virtually every facet of American life, from the boardroom to the courtroom to the bedroom.
For more than half a century, she personified the women’s movement and became its most enduring symbol; her tinted aviator glasses and curtain of streaked-blond hair parted in the center made her one of the most recognizable women in the world.
She was an unlikely revolutionary. Growing up a transient in the Midwest, she was 10 when her parents divorced and she was left to mother her mentally anguished mother — a formative experience that reverberated throughout her life. She had scant formal education until sixth grade; her big dream, as a budding tap dancer, was to become a Rockette.
But she read voraciously, graduated from college with honors and believed fiercely that women should be able to live whatever life they chose.
Her own feminist awakening didn’t come until her mid-30s, when, as a journalist in 1969, she attended a “speak out” of women discussing their illegal abortions. Charismatic, articulate, media savvy, deeply empathetic and a workaholic, she evolved into a political and cultural force.
She led protests and consciousness-raising sessions, wrote essays and delivered speeches, delved into political organizing, helped establish rape crisis centers and shelters for battered women, founded numerous groups that promoted women and had the Midas touch when it came to raising money for their causes.
She was a columnist for New York Magazine, and the article below, written in 1969, is touted as having pushed her into the limelight (click to read):
The piece is about the rise of third wave feminism, and this is how it ends:
But there is bound to be a time of, as social anthropologist Lionel Tiger puts it, “increased personal acrimony,” even if the revolution fails and women go right back to darning socks. (Masculinity doesn’t depend on the subservience of others, but it will take us a while to find that out.) It might be helpful to men—and good for women’s liberation—if they just keep repeating key phrases like, “No more guilt, No more alimony, Fewer boring women, Fewer bitchy women, No more tyrants with all human ambition confined to the home, No more ‘Jewish mothers’ transferring ambition to children, No more women trying to be masculine because it’s a Man’s World …” (and maybe one more round of “No more alimony”) until the acrimony has stopped.
Because the idea is, in the long run, that women’s liberation will be men’s liberation, too.
She was one of those figures that you implicitly think will live forever, and who you never imagine might be getting old, and so the announcement of her death was a shock.
Here’s a bit from Wikipedia about Steinem and ageing:
Commenting on aging, Steinem said that as she approached 60 she felt like she entered a new phase in life free of the “demands of gender” she had faced from adolescence onward. When asked about her desired legacy, she said she hoped her work “might help individual people… to become more the unique, valuable, loved and lovable person that they want to be.” In 2026, Steinem was interviewed as part of a New York Times essay asking about how it felt to reach 80. The article was released to coincide with the 80th birthday of sitting United States President Donald Trump; Steinem said the worst part of turning 80 was “losing people you love”. When asked if she had advice for Trump specifically, she replied: “Resign”.
Here’s Steinem in 1977, when she was 43:
Here’s rare interview with Steinem in her New York condo, conducted in her last year of life. It’s 80 minutes long, and be sure to listen to her claim that “we have an asshole in the White House” (1:03:06).