Journalist Gloria Steinem, a reference of feminism, dies

BarcelonaAmerican journalist Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92 in New York, according to her foundation. Steinem's contribution is fundamental to understanding the feminist revolution in the United States since the 1960s.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1934, she has been an essential iconic reference for the women's rights movement, within the so-called second-wave feminism. She was educated at Smith College in Massachusetts, and began her career as a journalist in the early 60s, when the editor of the magazine Esquire commissioned her an article on contraception and contraceptive methods. The piece was a work that highlighted how women were forced to choose between motherhood and a professional career. At that same stage, she also worked for the magazine Help!, a publication for which she posed as a Playboy bunny to investigate the working conditions of the women who worked at the Playboy Club.

The article After black power, women's liberation (After Black Power, Women's Liberation), published in 1969, made her a leader of the feminist movement and one of the visible faces of the campaign to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.

Feminist consciousness and practice led her to create the magazine Ms. in 1972, a publication created by women and for women. One of Steinem's goals was for the magazine to address the issues that really concerned readers and to set aside topics like fashion and housework, which until then were the dominant themes in publications aimed at a female audience. "As a journalist, I realized that there was no publication for women that was controlled by women, and that led me, along with many colleagues, to start the magazine Ms.," explained Steinem. Among those colleagues were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Mary Peacock, and Margaret Sloan-Hunter. Steinem was the editor of the magazine for fifteen years, which in 2001 was sold to the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Among Steinem's books, notable titles include Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions (1983), the essay Marilyn: Norma Jean (1988), about the actress Marilyn Monroe, and Revolution from Within (1992). The founding years of the magazine Ms. are part of the context of the series Mrs. America, in which the role of Gloria Steinem was played by actress Rose Byrne.