Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem

September 4, 2026

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5 min read

Remembering Gloria Steinem: The Activist, the Writer, the Woman Behind the Movement

Gloria Steinem, the writer, activist, and feminist icon, died Wednesday at age 92. Over decades, she was the voice and most identifiable face of women's liberation—a journalist who went undercover as a Playboy Bunny in 1963 to expose working conditions, co-founded Ms. Magazine in 1971, helped launch the National Women's Political Caucus, and wrote nearly a dozen books. In this episode of Fresh Air, host Terry Gross revisits two interviews with Steinem—one from 1987 and another from 2015—that together reveal not just the public activist but the private woman shaped by an unconventional childhood, a life on the road, and a late-in-life reckoning with what feminism demanded of her personally.

Why a Magazine for Women Was Necessary

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What you'll learn

1 (00:27) **Introduction: Remembering Gloria Steinem** - The episode opens with the announcement of Gloria Steinem's death at age 92 and a brief summary of her career as a writer, activist, and feminist icon.
2 (02:10) **1987 Interview: The Need for Ms. Magazine** - Steinem explains why a magazine by and for women was necessary in the late 1960s.
3 (03:48) **Mainstream Ridicule and the "Bra Burner" Myth** - Steinem discusses how the early women's movement was covered with ridicule in the press.
4 (06:20) **The Utopian Structure of Ms. Magazine** - Steinem describes the idealistic and practical choices made in organizing the magazine.
5 (08:02) **"The Personal is Political" and Internalizing the Message** - Steinem reflects on the enduring resonance of this core feminist slogan.
6 (10:10) **A Hidden Feminist Legacy** - Steinem discusses her grandmother, a suffragist and delegate to a 1908 convention, whose activism was concealed by the family.
7 (12:59) **2015 Interview: The Abortion Dedication** - The interview shifts to 2015 as Steinem reads the dedication of her memoir to Dr. John Sharp, who helped her get an illegal abortion in 1957.

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Guests on this episode

Gloria Steinem Terry Gross

Show Notes

Writer, activist and face of the women’s liberation movement Gloria Steinem died Wednesday at age 92. She spoke with Terry Gross several times over four decades, this remembrance pulls from three of those conversations: In 2015, Steinem talked about her unconventional childhood on the road with her parents, “My memory is that I learned how to read from ketchup bottles and labels and billboards along the highway,” she said. Steinem was a founding editor of Ms. magazine, the first feminist publication of its kind. In 1987, she spoke about the founding of the magazine and her early reporting. And in 1992, they discussed aging as she faced her golden years. You can find more Steinem tape in our archive.

Also, John Powers reviews the new film Coyote vs. Acme. which he calls a spoof of the classic legal thriller, like The Verdict or Erin Brockovich — but steeped in the surreal anarchy of Looney Tunes.

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