Gloria Steinem, one of the leading faces of the U.S. women’s rights movement, a journalist and feminist activist, has died. She was 92. Citing her foundation, the BBC reported Thursday that she died peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by family and close friends.
Steinem spent more than five decades speaking out for women’s equal rights and freedom. Beginning her career as a writer and magazine editor, the American became one of the best-known faces of the women’s liberation movement in the 1970s. She co-founded the Women’s Action Alliance, which worked on women’s rights issues.
In 1972, Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine. It stood apart from the women’s publications common at the time. Rather than focusing on conventional subjects like household matters and beauty, the magazine gave prominence to women’s rights, discrimination and socio-political issues, and quickly drew wide attention.
She was active on a range of social issues, including women’s reproductive rights, legalizing same-sex marriage, and equal pay and equal rights for women. She also spoke out against the death penalty and female genital mutilation.
At 22, Steinem had an illegal abortion in London. She later supported the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which established a constitutional right to abortion in the United States. Later in life, she also witnessed that landmark ruling overturned.
Steinem was born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Her childhood was difficult; she did not have the opportunity for regular schooling before age 12. After finishing university, she went to India in the late 1950s on a research fellowship. There, over two years, alongside various work, she helped organize rural women into nonviolent movements against government policies. The experience deepened her interest in grassroots social movements.
She returned to New York in the early 1960s and began working as a freelance journalist. An investigative report on working conditions for staff at the Playboy Club brought her recognition. She later became a columnist for New York Magazine.
Steinem’s foundation said she worked for equality until the final days of her life. In her later years, alongside writing and social activism, she hosted “talking circles” at her home.
The foundation said Steinem’s greatest strength was listening closely to others and helping people feel recognized in their own existence. Her work and ideals, it said, will continue to influence future generations.