Women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem wrote “My Life on the Road,” a memoir of her doctor who helped her obtain an abortion. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)
Longtime women’s rights activist, journalist and author Gloria Steinem died Sept. 2. She was 92.
Steinem dedicated her career to empowering women during the second-wave feminist movement. A writer for The New York Times and a co-founder of Ms. Magazine, an independent feminist publication, she focused her journalistic efforts on promoting change for reproductive rights and gender equality.
She also co-founded the Women’s Media Center in 2004 to increase visibility for women in media. Towards the beginning of her career in 1963, Steinem wrote an undercover exposé for Show Magazine on Playboy Club and the mistreatment and abuse of the women involved.
As part of Lafayette College’s 250th birthday celebration of Marquis de Lafayette, she visited campus on March 4, 2008, to present a lecture. She spoke for about 40 minutes on the topic “The Longest Revolution: Social Movements and Women’s Rights.”
During the speech, Steinem talked broadly about the impacts of feminism, the politics of gender and the interconnectedness of race and gender to a packed crowd.
The free event was followed by a public reception and a question-and-answer session, which she referred to as her favorite part of the event because it allowed her to learn from the audience.
“She was very poised and in control,” said Peter Newman ‘73, a visiting professor at Lafayette. “People tried to bait her, and she didn’t fall for that type of thing.”
Newman said Steinem’s 2008 visit influenced how he teaches his first-year seminar course, 1960s: Cause and Effects. He plays clips from her visit for his students when teaching about the second-wave feminist movement.
Steinem’s presence on campus affected more than just faculty, staff and students, but others who attended the speech as well.
“My neighbor was so happy and so excited, and she couldn’t believe she was in the same room as Gloria Steinem,” said Ana Ramirez Luhrs, the co-director of Special Collections & College Archives.
Ramirez Luhrs added that much of the current work of student organizations was made possible by Steinem’s career in activism.
“I can name a bunch of different types of student groups that have continued to grow because of the types of messages that Gloria Steinem believed in,” Ramirez Luhrs said.
Lafayette for Reproductive Autonomy, Justice and Empowerment, better known as L-RAJE, continues to use Steinem’s legacy as a “feminist reproductive rights group,” focused primarily on women’s health.
“She’s obviously super prevalent in everything L-RAJE does, and I credit her to a lot of the risks we are able to take and a lot of the initiatives that we’re able to start on campus,” said co-president of L-RAJE Bernadette Holm ‘27.
Holm said she does not know what the next feminist wave will look like.
“But I’m certainly excited to be a part of the formulation and creation of the fourth wave,” she said.