Today's Edition
(REUTERS)
American writer, lecturer and activist Gloria Steinem has died, her foundation said on Thursday. She was 92 years old.
The co-founder and consulting editor of Ms. Magazine championed women from the late 1960s onwards and inspired generations. She died on Wednesday, her foundation said in an Instagram post on Thursday.
"From reluctant spokesperson to a beacon of positive change, hers is a singular journey - an American leader who can speak to us all," film and theater director Julie Taymor said of Steinem in a 2017 New York Times interview.
Taymor directed the 2020 film "The Glorias," depicting Steinem's life across the years and based on her 2015 best-selling autobiography "My Life on the Road." She was also the subject of a 2018 play, "Gloria: A Life," and a 2011 HBO documentary "Gloria: In Her Own Words."
Steinem said she considered herself "an entrepreneur of social change."
"I want to do justice to the women I meet, to tell their stories," she told the New Yorker magazine in 2015. "It's making connections, and using myself to listen, because we can't empower women without listening to their stories."
Steinem founded the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971 with former US Representatives Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm and writer Betty Friedan. Among other groups, she also created the Women's Media Centre, Voters for Choice, and the Ms. Foundation for Women.
In 2013, then-President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honor.
Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, the younger of two daughters. Her father was a travelling antique dealer.
After graduating from Smith College, Steinem began freelancing as a journalist. In 1968, Steinem helped found New York magazine.
Steinem continued working into her 80s. She wrote numerous books, including 1986's "Marilyn: Norma Jean" about Marilyn Monroe, "Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem" about personal development, and books of essays.
