Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor and women’s rights pioneer. She is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality and is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She has been honored with numerous awards and has been the subject of two biographical television documentaries as well as “The Education of a Woman,” a biography written by Carolyn Heilbrun. In 1972, she co-founded Ms. Magazine, and remained one of its editors for 15 years. She continues to serve as a consulting editor for Ms. and was instrumental in the magazine’s move to join and be published by the Feminist Majority Foundation. In 1968, she 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 as well as for publications in other countries.

She has produced a documentary on child abuse for HBO and a feature film about the death penalty for Lifetime, and she has been the subject of profiles on Lifetime and Showtime. Steinem’s books include the bestsellers “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. 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.” She is currently at work on “Road to the Heart: America As if Everyone Mattered,” a book about her more than 30 years on the road as a feminist organizer. Steinem helped to found the Women’s Action Alliance, a pioneering national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, a group that continues to work to advance the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed office at a national and state level. She was president and co-founder of Voters for Choice, a pro-choice political action committee for 25 years, then with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund when it merged with VFC for the 2004 elections. She was also co-founder and serves on the board of Choice USA, a national organization that supports young pro-choice leadership and works to preserve comprehensive sex education in schools.