CITYWIDE — FEMINIST GLORIA STEINEM, a pioneer advocate for women’s rights and equity in the workplace and whose foundation is headquartered in Downtown Brooklyn, died Wednesday at 92.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem spent her youth as a transient and a caregiver for her mother, according to an extensive New York Times obituary. Defining herself as “an entrepreneur of social change,” Steinem eventually moved to New York as an aspiring journalist and began working indefatigably to bring attention to the treatment of women in the workplace.
She pushed for the passage of the second iteration of the Equal Rights Amendment, the first being during the 1920s. Though eventually ratified, the ERA was never added to the U.S. Constitution. In 1971, she and three other women launched Ms. Magazine, which became the “first glossy national publication created, owned and run entirely by women,” the Times obit said.
A year later, Steinem and Patricia Carbine, Letty Cottin-Pogrebin and Marlo Thomas established the Ms. Foundation. One of their first projects was to fund shelters for women survivors of domestic violence. The Ms. Foundation is headquartered on Willoughby Square in Downtown Brooklyn.
Steinem’s latest book, “An Unexpected Life,” will be released posthumously later this month.
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