American journalist and feminist Gloria Steinem died at the age of 92, the Gloria Foundation announced on social media. Steinem died on Wednesday at her home in New York, surrounded by her loved ones. The foundation did not specify the cause of death but praised "almost 100 full years" dedicated to the fight for equality. The statement highlighted that "Gloria's greatest gift was the ability to listen to others, to make them feel understood and heard."
Steinem was born on March 25, 1934 and studied Political Science at Smith College, a field that was uncommon for women at the time. After graduating, she had an illegal abortion. She began her career as director of the Independent Research Service, an organization funded by the CIA, but soon devoted herself to journalism, writing for Esquire magazine on topics that affected women.
In the 1960s, she contributed to the Huntington Hartford Show radio program and infiltrated the Playboy Club in New York as a bunny rabbit to expose the working conditions of those women. She was a founding member of New York Magazine in 1968, and after covering an event on abortion, coined the concept of "reproductive freedom." Together with Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan, she created the Women's National Political Caucus and, in the 1970s, co-founded the feminist magazine Ms.
Steinem suffered from breast cancer in the 1980s and spent her final years sharing with others and writing. In 2021, she won the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in Spain.
