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“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
Gloria Steinem spent more than five decades doing exactly that: challenging the assumptions that kept women—and ultimately everyone—less free.
The groundbreaking feminist writer, journalist, and activist died September 2 at 92, leaving behind a body of work that helped redefine equality, work, power, and liberation.
For Steinem, words were never just words. They were a tool for action.
Her journalism helped expose the realities of women’s lives. Her activism helped build the modern women’s movement. In 1972, she co-founded Ms. Magazine, creating a platform owned and shaped by women. She fought for reproductive rights, workplace equality, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and a broader vision of human rights.
But perhaps her most enduring legacy is the way she made complicated ideas feel startlingly simple.
Nine lines worth remembering
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons . . . but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”
“A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.”
“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
“Empathy is the most radical of human emotions.”
“None of us can be liberated if other groups are not.”
“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”
“I’ve done the best I could with my life.”
That last line may be the simplest—and perhaps the most fitting.
Steinem understood that change is rarely the work of one person. It is built collectively, through courage, imagination, empathy, and persistence.
Her life was a reminder that speaking up can change the conversation—and that changing the conversation can change the world.