Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem helped change the way women understood their own lives—and the way the country talked about women’s rights. A writer, organizer, and feminist leader, she spent decades challenging the idea that inequality was simply the way things were.
She began her career as a journalist and gained national attention when she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny to report on the working conditions at the Playboy Club. Her reporting helped establish her as a voice willing to go, quite literally, where other journalists wouldn’t.
In 1972, she co-founded Ms. Magazine, creating a publication that treated women’s lives, politics, reproductive rights, sexuality, and work as subjects worthy of serious journalism. She became one of the most recognizable faces of the women’s movement, and used her visibility to bring feminist ideas into the mainstream.
Beyond writing, she helped organize the National Women’s Political Caucus and worked alongside activists including Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm to build political power for women. She also advocated for reproductive rights, equal pay, and protections against gender-based violence, while making space within the movement for women whose experiences had often been overlooked.
For more than six decades, Steinem continued to write, organize, speak, and challenge the status quo. She helped women recognize inequality—and gave them the confidence to do something about it.
