Gloria Steinem was one of the most recognizable names in second wave feminism, but she did not rest on her laurels.
On Wednesday, Steinem died at the age of 92 at her home in New York City, “surrounded by some of the many who loved her,” according to a post shared on her Instagram page.
Interviews in the last years of her life painted a picture of someone still motivated by work and social change.
In 2018, The cut asked her about work-life balance at age 84, to which she replied, “Most people have to work to live, but some of us live to work.” It’s a common theme among long-lived legends who have recently passed away, including Dolly Parton And David Hockney. Longevity experts say a a long life and a fixed purpose are linked.
Steinem said she saw her life as a stove with twelve pans on it.
“One pot boils over, one needs salt, one is a new recipe,” she told The Cut. “I’m constantly moving from pot to pot. There are writing projects, groups I care about and sit on the board of, there’s a lot of traveling – I spend a third to a half of my life on the road – there are political emergencies and campaigns, lots of different pots. At any given time there are twelve projects in my life.”
Steinem was a consultant to Vice Media at the time and produced the film adaptation of her memoir “My Life on the Road.” involved in social activism. She helped bring feminism to the mainstream as a journalist and activist in the 1960s and 1970s, including co-founding both “Ms.. Magazine” and the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. Steneim received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 for her work, which included issues of reproductive freedom and equal rights.
Decades later, Steinem supported the intersectional feminist movement of the 2010s, and contradicted himself Roe v. Wade is repealed in 2022.
In 2024, Vogue interviewed Steinem on the occasion of her 90th birthday and asked what she hoped to celebrate on her 100th.
“Certainly much less emphasis on race, ethnicity and gender,” she said. “Also, less emphasis on groupism and more on shared, unique human individuality. And it goes without saying that wars, killings and crime on the streets are tragedies.”
She partially credited not having children for her success Bobbi Browns “I am mepodcast in 2025, and said she was excited to be a parent.
“I don’t mind getting old, except I love it here, and I don’t want to leave,” Steinem said.
