Gloria Steinem, leading U.S. feminist and author, dead at 92

Gloria Steinem, leading U.S. feminist and author, dead at 92

Died Wednesday at her home in New York City, her foundation says

Gloria Steinem, the celebrated U.S. author and activist who became one of the most potent voices of the feminist movement, has died. She was 92.

Steinem, a co-founder of Ms. magazine, was a hugely recognizable presence wherever she went. And she went everywhere: Much of her life as an advocate was spent on the road, speaking at college campuses and community centres, at rallies and marches.

She died Wednesday at her home in New York City, according to her foundation's social media pages.

"Gloria's greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard," the posts said. "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 humour."

Steinem enjoyed writing and spending time in the community in recent years, the posts said. She also hosted talking circles for hundreds of people in her home. She died just before a planned memoir was to be released this fall.

In a 2019 interview with CBC News, Steinem said she had not seen as much grassroots activism in all of her years advocating for feminist issues as she had during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term.

My role is to listen to younger women and to say, 'What can I do to help?'" she said, when she was asked about the broader backlash from other activists amid a push for intersectional feminism.

"It's not to tell anybody what to do, that's ridiculous. It's to listen."

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She began her career as a journalist, notably one who reported, in 1963, on degrading conditions in Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire, an undercover assignment she came to later regret. She credits a meeting six years later, where women spoke out boldly in favour of abortion rights, with changing her career path.

"That speak-out was the beginning of activism for me," Steinem, who had undergone a secret illegal abortion herself at age 22, told The Associated Press in an email in 2022, reflecting on the reversal of Roe v. Wade. "Either our control over our own bodies is equal, regardless of sex or race, or we're not living in a democracy."

Tributes to Steinem have begun pouring in from around the globe from leaders, cultural figures and women who were inspired by her.

Patti Smith shared a photo of Steinem, calling her "the greatest." Hillary Clinton highlighted Steinem's achievements in a post honouring her, pointing out that her activism helped society question misogynistic systems.

"She pushed open doors not just for herself, but for literally millions of women behind her," Clinton wrote in the post.

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, shared a lengthy post of her memories with Steinem. The two had appeared at multiple events together to encourage voting and advance women's rights, but Markle said her "friend and mentor" had also been over for Thanksgiving and gave "extraordinary advice and perspective with a cup of tea and an unrivaled cheekiness and wit."

Lena Dunham wrote in an Instagram post that she was honoured to have known Steinem and learned sides of her not everyone saw, like that Call The Midwife was her wind-down show after a party.

"You weren't just generous with your life force, your vision or your intellect: you were generous with your time, your laughter and even your jewelry (like the time I admired your silver vulva ring and you plucked it off your hand and placed it on mine.)," Dunham wrote.

Though she soon became a known activist, those who watched Steinem denounce discrimination for so many years likely never suspected that she'd had to overcome a deep fear of public speaking. She would have simply stuck to writing, she said, if only editors at the time had been willing to let her write about the women's movement.

But they weren't interested, she told The Associated Press in 2015.

"So I ended up going out and speaking, which was my nightmare," she said. "I mean, I was terrified. But I'm grateful, even though I still get scared even now."

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.

"Being a feminist means that you see the world as whole instead of half," she once said. "It shouldn't need a name, and one day it won't."

A few days after her 85th birthday, she was leading a women's "talking circle" at an off-Broadway play celebrating her life, where one by one, women in the audience — many fighting tears — rose to thank her and tell their own stories of discrimination.

In 2020, her life was the subject of a feature film: The Glorias, A Life on the Road, based on her 2015 memoir and starring Julianne Moore.

Moore posted a set photo with Steinem on Thursday, writing that "the time I spent studying Gloria Steinem in order to play her was one of the most edifying of my life."

And at 91, Steinem collaborated on a picture book with Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee aimed at inspiring young people to change the world. Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All was published in February 2026.

The constant visibility came with a price. Even into her older years, Steinem expressed frustration that despite her accomplishments, she was often described as beautiful or glamorous (A 1992 Vanity Fair profile noted her "spectacular racehorse legs.") It was a label she said unfairly detracted from her message.

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"Nobody ever called me beautiful until I was publicly a feminist, and that was in my mid-30s," she said. "It was clear that label was being assigned to me. The most hurtful part is that you work very hard, and people say it's because of your looks."

Steinem also had to deal with hostility, which sometimes came from surprising places.

Appearing on Larry King's talk show on CNN in 1990, she was visibly stunned when a female caller greeted her cheerfully, then told her to "rot in hell" because she had ruined "the beautiful American family."

But by then, she noted, at least people were taking feminists seriously. That wasn't the case in 1972 when she co-founded Ms. magazine and many commentators — especially male — dismissed it as ridiculous, predicting an early demise. (The magazine continues to this day, published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.)

Among Steinem's detractors was then-president Richard Nixon, who was caught on an Oval Office tape ridiculing both her and the "Ms." title. The ridicule was mutual: In a 1972 National Press Club speech, Steinem called Nixon "the most sexually insecure chief of state since Napoleon."

It was just one example of Steinem's trademark wit. Before she married at 66, she often explained her singlehood by saying "I can't mate in captivity."

Laughter, she wrote, was "the only free emotion — the only one that can't be compelled."