American Icon Remains an Activist

Gloria Steinem's name  is practically synonymous with the word "feminism." Today at 86, she  this heavy-lifter of the American Women's Movement remains an organizer and political activist.

“I’ve learned that this [feminism]is not something we care about for a year or two or three,” Ms.  Steinem wrote. “We are in it for life – and for our lives.”

Please welcome author Winifred Conkling here to tell you about the biography she's written entitled  Ms. Gloria Steinem, A Life.  Reviewers call it insightful and well-researched. From Booklist,  "Readers will come away with...

a deeper appreciation for how much has changed for women during Steinem's lifetime and how much of that change was forged by Steinem herself."

Winifred: I grew up listening to Gloria Steinem as the voice of the women’s movement. I read her books and heard her lecture several times, but I didn’t not appreciate the complexities of her life until I began my research for this book.

Steinem didn’t expect her life to be defined by the women’s movement. She was a reluctant revolutionary, at least in the beginning. In her twenties, Gloria thought she would spend a few years working on feminist issues and then turn her attention to other causes.

Steinem’s life epitomizes what it meant to be a twentieth-century feminist.

In the 1960s, she became a respected journalist and writer; she cofounded Ms. magazine and became a best-selling author. She wanted to make change, not just write about it. She became a political activist and social reformer; she cofounded the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation, and the Women’s Media Center, among other groups. She became a leader in the women’s movement, speaking out on feminist issues for decades. 

But Steinem’s life almost turned out differently. 

Gloria Steinem campaigns for the Equal Rights Amendment, saying "The American Dream Has Never Included Everybody."

In her senior year of college, Steinem accepted a marriage proposal and a diamond engagement ring. She came close to choosing a conventional life as a wife and mother, but, in the end, she couldn’t go through with the wedding.
 
According to the conventions of the 1950s, a wife was expected to devote herself to her husband and children, but Steinem wanted a life of her own. What gave Steinem the confidence to resist social pressures of her day? Her unusual childhood experiences almost certainly shaped her adult choices.  ​​​​​​​

Gloria with her mother Ruth

 As a young girl, Steinem’s parents divorced, and she was left alone to care for her mentally unstable mother, Ruth.  
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Steinem never questioned her mother’s love and devotion, but Ruth Steinem was unable to properly care for her daughter.   During certain periods, their lives were safe and predictable, but for many years ​

their mother/daughter roles were reversed, and Steinem was forced to care for her mother, feeding her and comforting her when she became confused or afraid
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Steinem tried not to resent her mother’s illness, but she felt the burden of putting someone else’s needs ahead of her own. Years later, Steinem may have resisted the urge to become a wife and mother because she had already experienced the role of caregiver when she was a child herself.
 
By rejecting social convention, Steinem was free to follow her personal passions. Instead of raising a family, she devoted much of her creative energy to the women’s movement and feminist causes. Without family commitments and obligations, Steinem was also freer to be herself, without being accused of emasculating her husband or neglecting her children. She spoke only for herself, but she spoke on behalf of all women.

Every experience in Steinem’s life informed the next. Steinem studied government at Smith College in Massachusetts and graduated magna cum laude in 1956.
 
She earned the Chester Bowles Fellowship, which enabled her to spend two years traveling and studying in India. While overseas, she became involved with grassroots activism, which she later used in her work with the women’s movement.
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When she returned to the United States, Steinem worked as an organizer and then a journalist in New York, writing freelance pieces for various publications. 

Gloria Steinem circa 1960

Gloria Steinem working undercover as a Playboy Bunny. (Photograph: Getty Images)

“The costume was so tight, it would have given a man cleavage,” she famously said.
 
Most editors wouldn’t assign Steinem the stories she wanted to write, so in 1968 she helped launch New York magazine. Steinem reported on political campaigns and progressive social issues, including the women’s movement. Steinem recognized the need for a magazine dedicated to the women’s movement.
 
In 1971 she co-founded Ms. Magazine, which was first published as an insert in New York magazine. The following year, Ms. became an independent publication, and Steinem served as an editor and writer for fifteen years. (She remains an emeritus editor at Ms.) 
 

Steinem wasn’t satisfied with writing about feminist issues. She became an activist and toured the country as a provocative speaker on college campuses and at community events.
 
Throughout her career, Steinem co-founded a number of organizations:

• National Women’s Political Caucus, which supports the election of feminists to public office
•  Women’s Action Alliance, which promotes non-sexist, multi-racial children’s education; the Women’s Media Center, which promotes positive images of women in media
• Voters for Choice, a pro-choice political action committee
• Ms. Foundation for Women, which supports programs that help women with employment, reproductive health, domestic abuse, and other issues of importance to women.​

In 2013, Barak Obama awarded Steinem the President Medal of Freedom, the highest nonmilitary honor given by the United States government, for her lifetime of social activism and reform.
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2013 Getty Images

Winifred, thanks so much for giving us a quick look at the life of Gloria Steinem. This space really is too short to give justice to the the accomplishments of such an American icon.  We'll all have to read the book!

You may remember Winifred from her book Radioactive!  How Irène Curie & Lise Meitner Revolutionized Science and Changed the World.   If you missed it, here's the post:  Imagine a Teenage Girl Goes to War to Impress Her Mom, and that’s Just the Beginning.
 
To learn more about Author Winifred Conkling and her books, check out her website here...