NEW YORK — Gloria Steinem, the journalist, activist and co-founder of Ms. magazine who became one of the most prominent figures in the U.S. women’s movement, died Sept. 2 at her home in New York City. She was 92.
A statement shared by Steinem’s foundation said she died peacefully surrounded by people who loved her. No cause of death was announced. The statement said she continued working for equality until the end of her life.
Over more than five decades, Steinem used journalism, organizing and public advocacy to advance women’s equality and help move issues affecting women into the center of American political and cultural debate.
A journalist who challenged established institutions
Steinem first gained national attention through journalism.
In 1963, she published an undercover account of working at a Playboy Club, examining the low pay, working conditions and treatment of women employed there. The reporting established her reputation as a journalist willing to investigate institutions that shaped women’s lives.
Her work increasingly became connected with the emerging women’s movement. An essay published in 1969 examining women and Black liberation brought her feminist views to a wider audience, while an abortion speak-out in New York marked an important development in her activism.
Ms. magazine created a national feminist platform
Steinem and a group of feminist journalists began developing what became Ms. magazine in 1971.
A preview issue distributed as an insert in New York magazine quickly sold out. The first regular issue followed in 1972, establishing a national publication devoted to subjects that mainstream women’s magazines had often overlooked or treated as private concerns.
■ Related News
Ms. covered abortion, sexual harassment, domestic violence, child care and workplace inequality, helping bring those issues into wider public discussion.
Steinem later described the publication as a national voice for women. Ms. ultimately became a nonprofit publication under the Feminist Majority Foundation.
Her activism reached beyond feminist organizing
Steinem helped establish organizations intended to translate feminist advocacy into political and community action, including the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Women’s Action Alliance, the Ms. Foundation for Women and the Women’s Media Center.
She also supported international organizations working on women’s rights, including Equality Now.
Throughout her career, Steinem increasingly connected gender equality with racial, economic and other forms of inequality. She frequently emphasized the contributions of Black women, labor organizers, civil rights activists and others whose roles had sometimes been overlooked in conventional accounts of the women’s movement.
Reproductive rights remained a defining cause
Reproductive freedom remained central to Steinem’s public advocacy.
She spoke openly about having an abortion in London when she was 22 and connected that experience to the broader struggle over women’s control of their own bodies.
Steinem remained a prominent supporter of abortion rights for decades, including after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Her advocacy treated reproductive autonomy as part of women’s wider political and economic equality.
A public figure whose influence crossed generations
Steinem became one of the most recognizable figures associated with the women’s movement, appearing at rallies, universities, political events and on television.
Yet she repeatedly resisted the idea that feminism belonged to a single leader. In later reflections published by Ms., she emphasized collective organizing and the contributions of women from different generations and backgrounds.
That distinction became central to her legacy. Her public profile brought wider attention to feminist activism, while the organizations and publications she helped build created structures designed to sustain that work beyond any one individual.
Recognition and a continuing legacy
President Barack Obama awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
She continued writing, speaking and participating in feminist organizing into her later years. In 2022, the National Women’s History Alliance named her a Feminist Icon in recognition of her contributions.
Steinem’s influence extended beyond individual campaigns. Her work helped make domestic violence, sexual harassment, reproductive rights and workplace discrimination subjects of sustained mainstream debate.
Her death leaves behind institutions, publications and organizing networks shaped in part by her work. Ms. continues to publish feminist journalism, while Equality Now and other organizations continue campaigns for women’s rights.
A posthumous memoir, An Unexpected Life, is scheduled for publication Sept. 22.
Steinem’s legacy rests not only in her status as one of America’s most prominent feminist activists, but also in the institutions and public debates she helped shape—work that continues to influence discussions of equality, rights and representation.
Reporting Credit: Gloria’s Foundation and Ms. magazine — confirmation of Steinem’s death and biographical legacy; Equality Now — statement on her life and international women’s rights work.
