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One of the great feminists of the 60s and 70s, Gloria Steinem, was a journalist, activist, opinion leader, speaker is one that can certainly inspire you. The first triggers that motivated her to become a feminist were her mother’s mental illness, her father’s abandonment and a nomadic childhood caused by frequent family moves. Gloria Steinem spent much of her life on the road and as an adult, because that was her profession.
As a journalist, she wrote extensively about reproductive health at a time when the birth control pill had just been launched. At that time, Gloria sensed how this innovation would change the world. “The real danger of the contraceptive revolution may be the acceleration of the change in the role of women without any corresponding change in the attitude of men towards her role,” she said in one of the articles.
Her popularity grew after the article she wrote as an undercover “Playboy Bunny” exposing abuses at the New York Playboy Club. The investigation was published by Show magazine, titled “A Bunny’s Tale,” and describes in lavish detail the exploitation and misogyny that ran rampant at Hugh Hefner’s club. The article became a landmark in her career.
The medical experience of the mother’s mental illness was sublimated in a moving tribute entitled Ruth’s Song (Because She Could Not Sing It).
“Moving Beyond Words – age, rage, sex, power, money, muscles – breaking boundaries of gender” and
“Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions” was highly praised for its witty, warm, and world-changing vision, as if women mattered. Her essays on female genital mutilation and the difference between erotica and pornography, on reproductive health and reproductive rights remain references today.
Photo: Katie Lyman, on the Facebook official page of Gloria Steinem
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