Gloria Steinem, feminist who helped change lives of US women, has died

Gloria Steinem, feminist who helped change lives of US women, has died

Gloria Steinem, the pioneering journalist and activist who became one of the most influential voices of the modern feminist movement in the United States, died Wednesday, September 2, 2026. She was 92.

Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by loved ones, according to statements posted to her official social media pages and those of her foundation. No cause of death was provided. Steinem had previously faced a breast cancer diagnosis in 1986, which entered remission that same year, and was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve condition, in the 1990s.

A statement regarding her passing noted that Steinem continued working for equality until the end of her life, spending her recent years writing and being in community with others. She frequently hosted "Talking Circles" in her living room for hundreds of guests, a tradition she requested continue after her death.

Journalism and the "Playboy Bunny" Exposé

Born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem graduated from Smith College in 1956 with a degree in government.

Steinem began her career as a freelance journalist in New York during the 1960s. Steinem challenged these boundaries in 1963 when she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny for Show magazine. Her exposé revealed the low wages and sexist working conditions women endured in Hugh Hefner's clubs.

This breakthrough led to her role as a founding editor and political writer for New York magazine in 1968. In 1969, she published After Black Power, Women's Liberation, a piece that brought her national attention and established her as a leader in the movement.

Leading the "Second Wave"

Steinem became a central figure of "second-wave feminism," dedicating her life to workplace equality, domestic violence prevention, and reproductive freedom. In 1971, she joined Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, and Shirley Chisholm to establish the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) to increase women's participation in politics.

In 1972, she co-founded Ms. magazine. It addressed abortion, lesbianism, and sexual harassment.

Her advocacy for reproductive rights was personal. Steinem had an illegal abortion at age 22 in 1957, a fact she did not reveal publicly until 1969. She dedicated her 2015 memoir, My Life on the Road, to the doctor who performed the procedure.

Personal Life and Evolving Views

Steinem’s personal choices often mirrored her political philosophy that women should have the freedom to decide their own paths. She never had biological or adopted children, a decision she attributed in part to the years spent caring for her mother, Ruth, who struggled with mental illness. Steinem described herself as having been the very small parent of a very big child.

For decades, Steinem was critical of marriage, viewing it as an institution that ruined relationships and disadvantaged women legally. However, in 2000, at age 66, she married activist David Bale. She explained to National Geographic that the legal realities of marriage had changed, making an equal partnership possible. Bale died of brain lymphoma in 2003.

Despite her status, Steinem faced professional and personal hurdles. In a 1992 interview with Vanity Fair, she admitted to being slow to embrace feminism in her thirties, noting she had struggled to rent apartments or get serious assignments due to her status as a single woman.

Later Years and Legacy

In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his speech, he stated that because of her work, more women worldwide are afforded the respect and opportunities they deserve.

Steinem remained politically active into her 90s, participating in the 2017 Women's March and supporting LGBTQ rights and the Times Up movement. She remained a vocal critic of Donald Trump, telling The New York Times in 2020, If Trump spoke well of me, I would shoot myself.

Her final memoir, An Unexpected Life, is scheduled for release on September 22. In the book, she wrote of her Manhattan brownstone, where she lived for more than 50 years: I have now lived for more than fifty years in this brownstone, in rooms that have witnessed lives before mine, and will know others after I am gone.

In lieu of flowers, Steinem requested that donations be made to Gloria's Foundation.