Gloria Steinem, the renowned activist, journalist and leader of the second-wave feminist movement, has died. She was 92.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday, Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her. Gloria\u2019s near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end,” a statement posted to her Instagram account read. It added that she had died on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Gloria\u2019s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.”<\/p>\n
With her trademark aviator sunglasses and streaked hair parted down the middle, Steinen was a recognizable presence in the women\u2019s rights movement in the United States and abroad, and dedicated her life to varies causes, including reproductive freedom, domestic violence prevention, workplace gender inequalities and same-sex marriage. <\/p>\n
Born in Ohio in 1934, Steinem launched her career as a freelance journalist in New York City in the 1950s where she fought to write serious stories about politics and women’s rights. Her big break came in 1963 when she reported on degrading conditions in Hugh Hefner\u2019s Playboy empire, an undercover assignment she came to later regret.<\/p>\n
In 1969, she spoke for the first time at an event to legalize abortion, sharing her own story about secretly terminating a pregnancy in London when she was 22, at a time when the procedure was illegal. She credits that event with changing her career path.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just knew that if I went home and married, which I would’ve had to do, it would be to the wrong person; it would be to a life that wasn’t mine, that wasn’t mine at all,\u201d Steinem said of the decision in a 2015 interview with NPR\u2019s “Fresh Air.” Steinem soon emerged as a prominent spokeswoman for the growing movement, speaking at many protests and demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Time hardly slowed Steinem down; well into her 80s she was traveling the globe and speaking out on issues of importance to her. These included everything from genital mutilation to Korean reconciliation, but it was equality for women that took precedence. \u201cBeing a feminist means that you see the world as whole instead of half,\u201d she once said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t need a name, and one day it won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tToday activist Gloria Steinem celebrated her 90th birthday here in NYC. NBC New York\u2019s Tracie Strahan reports.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
As the years went on, Steinem\u2019s visibility endured. At 83, she sat in the front row of her first fashion show, guest of designer Prabal Gurung. A few days after her 85th birthday, she was leading a women\u2019s \u201ctalking circle\u201d at an off-Broadway play celebrating her life, where one by one, women in the audience \u2014 many fighting tears \u2014 rose to thank her and tell their own stories of discrimination. In 2020, her life was the subject of a feature film, \u201cThe Glorias, A Life on The Road,\u201d based on her 2015 memoir and starring Julianne Moore.<\/p>\n