Gloria Steinem, aged 92, passed away peacefully at her home in New York City on Wednesday, the Gloria Steinem Foundation announced on Instagram, adding that she was "surrounded by many who loved her".
The foundation said she "continued working for equality until the very end" and that her home had become a hub for community‑based social‑justice discussions, a tradition it intends to sustain.
Born on 25 March 1934 in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem endured a difficult childhood and did not attend school full‑time until she was twelve.
After completing university in the late 1950s she won a research scholarship to India, where she helped village women organise non‑violent protests.
Returning to the United States in the early 1960s, she began a freelance journalism career in New York, breaking through with an exposé of Playboy Bunny working conditions and later becoming a columnist for New York Magazine.
In 1972 she co‑founded Ms magazine, one of the first publications to focus on women's issues beyond housekeeping and beauty, and she also co‑established the Women's Action Alliance, a group dedicated to fighting sexism.
Throughout the 1970s Steinem was a vocal campaigner for women's reproductive rights, having obtained an illegal abortion in London at the age of 22 and later celebrating the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade.
She continued to champion the legalisation of same‑sex marriage, equal pay, the abolition of the death penalty and an end to female genital mutilation. In 2013 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honour.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Steinem as "one of the architects of the entire structure of women's equality" and praised her optimism, saying her activism was a moral choice she lived out daily.
Tributes from writers and feminists poured in on social media, many recalling how Steinem's words had changed their lives.
In her final years Steinem welcomed guests to "Talking Circles" at her home, a practice the foundation says will continue. A forthcoming memoir, An Unexpected Life, and her enduring commitment to making her home a centre for social‑justice movements were highlighted as part of her lasting gifts to future generations.
Category: News
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