Gloria Steinem

I t's the birthday of the feminist writer and activist who said, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle": Gloria Steinem, born in Toledo, Ohio (1934). Her father was an antique dealer and a summer resort operator who traveled all over the country in a trailer, looking for new business ventures. Steinem said, "He was always going to make a movie, or cut a record, or start a new hotel, or come up with a new orange drink." She traveled around the country with her father, never attending school, until her parents separated, and she moved in with her mother, who suffered a mental break down. Steinem said, "[My mother was] an invalid who lay in bed with eyes closed and lips moving in occasional response to voices only she could hear; a woman to whom I brought an endless stream of toast and coffee, bologna sandwiches, and dime pies."

Steinem had poor grades in school, but she managed to get into Smith based entirely on her entrance examinations. After college, she went to work as a journalist and made her name with a piece called "I was a Playboy Bunny" (1963), about working undercover at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club in midtown Manhattan. She went on to found Ms. magazine, devoted to women's issues, in 1972. It sold out its first print run of 300,000 copies in eight days.

Steinem has written several books about the inequities women face in the modern world, including Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983) and Revolution from Within (1992).

Gloria Steinem said, "Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else."

--------

 Another woman worth thinking about, and thanking for her intelligent leadership...

'Happy Birthday' Gloria Steinem born on March 25, 1934 (age 89 in 2023) in Toledo, Ohio. --- Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was chairwoman of the educational committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association, a delegate to the 1908 International Council of Women, and the first woman to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College in 1956, and then spent two years in India on a Chester Bowles Fellowship.

In 1968, she had helped to found New York magazine, where she was a political columnist and wrote feature articles. As a freelance writer, she was published in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and women's magazines. She co-founded Ms. magazine in 1972, remained one of its editors for fifteen years and continues to serve as a consulting editor. Her books include the bestsellers "My Life on the Road," "Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem," "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions," "Moving Beyond Words," and "Marilyn: Norma Jean," on the life of Marilyn Monroe, and in India, "As If Women Matter." Her writing also appears in many anthologies and textbooks, and she was an editor of Houghton Mifflin's "The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History."

Steinem helped to found the Women's Action Alliance and the National Women's Political Caucus. She also co-founded the Women's Media Center in 2004. She was president and co-founder of Voters for Choice, that merged with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for the 2004 elections. She was co-founder and serves on the board of Choice USA (now URGE). She is the founding president of the Ms. Foundation for Women and a founder of its Take Our Daughters to Work Day. She was a member of the Beyond Racism Initiative. She is currently working with the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College on documenting the grassroots origins of the U.S. women's movement, and on a Center for Organizers in tribute to Wilma Mankiller, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

In 1993, Steinem was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. In 2014, she received The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal Award and in 2013, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. - Iowa State University