Gloria Steinem, the writer and activist who became the public face of the American womenโs movement and helped launch Ms. magazine, died Wednesday at her home in New York City. She was 92.
In an Instagram post, Steinemโs foundation said Steinem โpassed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her.โ It added: โGloriaโs near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end.โ
Steinem began her journalism career in New York in the 1970s before helping launch Ms. magazine, one of the first publications to look beyond housekeeping and the beauty industry to address womenโs broader concerns. More than 50 years ago, she also helped establish the Womenโs Action Alliance, a group focused on combating sexism.
Throughout the 1970s, she was among the most visible advocates for womenโs reproductive rights. She welcomed the Supreme Courtโs 1973 Roe v. Wade decision affirming a constitutional right to abortion, and lived to see that right overturned nearly half a century later.
Steinemโs story also made its way to the screen. In 2011, HBO premiered the documentary โGloria: In Her Own Words,โ which used photos and archival footage alongside Steinemโs own recollections to trace the womenโs movement through her eyes, with Peter Kunhardt directing and Sheila Nevins producing alongside him. Her 2015 memoir, โMy Life on the Road,โ later formed the basis for โThe Glorias,โ a nontraditional biopic directed by Julie Taymor, in which four actors, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Lulu Wilson and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, each played Steinem at a different stage of her life.
Steinem also turned up as herself across decades of television, with spots on programs including โThe Dick Cavett Show,โ โ60 Minutes,โ โThe Daily Showโ and โCharlie Rose,โ โThe Good Wifeโ and โAnd Just Like Thatโฆโ On film, she played herself in โThe First Wives Club.โ
Her foundation said Steinemโs โgreatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard,โ adding that โher words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves.โ
She hosted hundreds of guests over the years in her living room, welcoming them to what the foundation called Talking Circles, gatherings it said will continue in her memory. Steinem had a forthcoming book, โAn Unexpected Life,โ in which she wrote: โI 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.โ
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