NATIONAL NEWS – Ground-breaking women’s rights activist and Ms. Magazine founder Gloria Steinem dies at 92
Photo: by Wendy Thompson/DC Spotlight Newspaper
Gloria Steinem, who ushered in her own brand of feminist and became the face of women’s rights in the 1960s and, has died. Her grandmother was also a renowned activist on the committee of the National Suffrage Association, who helped rescue members of her Jewish family from Germany in the 1930s. Steinem attended Smith College where she learned the skills that would later form her roles as a journalist and founder of her own magazine. She authored powerful articles for Esquire magazine on sexual beliefs and taboos, birth control and the changing roles of women. During her young career, she worked as an undercover cocktail waitress at the New York Playboy Club, which lead to her publishing an expose on the unequal pay for “bunnies” in the club and the wide-spread sexual harassment by men in the workplace. Her article “A Bunny’s Tale” helped launch her writing career during that time. She later co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus after a male-dominated Congress refused to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
She focused her activism on equal pay, sex education and abortion rights for women. In 1972, she founded the formidable Ms. Magazine with Dorothy Hughes, which focused on the rights and lives of women in America. In the 1990s, her focus moved to anti-war protests and activism. In 2013, she won the Presidential Medal of Freedom during President Barack Obama’s administration. She also won the United Nations’ Society of Writers Award and the National Gay Rights Advocates Award. When asked about her legacy, she remarked, “There is no one torch. There are many, and I’m using my torch to light other torches. There shouldn’t have been a first Gloria Steinem, and there won’t be a last one.”
Her foundation released a statement on social media: “Yesterday”, Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her. Gloria’s near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end.” Steinem was 92.
