Gloria Steinem was a powerful icon of America's feminist movement and her career spanned numerous roles that changed the lives of generations of women. With her iconic aviator sunglasses and long, blonde-streaked hair – which she considered rebellious in the 1970s – Steinem was an internationally recognised activist in the fight for women's equality.
She spoke out for the legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage, and equal rights and pay for women, and protested against the death penalty and female genital mutilation. Her activism was not without a backlash – from both men and women – and harassment that could be as vulgar as it was intimidating. Born on 25 March 1934 in Toledo, Ohio, Gloria Steinem did not have an easy childhood.
Her father Leo Steinem was a travelling salesman and, together with her mother Ruth and older sister Susanne, they lived in a caravan, crisscrossing the country. Leo abandoned the family and moved to California when Steinem was 10 years old, leaving her to care for Ruth who had long suffered with mental illness and had terrifying hallucinations. As a result, Steinem did not go to school full-time until she was 12 years old.
She would later remark that she had never wanted children because she had already had one – her mother. In the late 1950s she went to India on a research scholarship, and spent two years in a variety of roles, including helping village women organise non-violent protests against government policies, which sparked her interest in grassroots activism.
Steinem left India and moved to New York City in the early 1960s to start her career as a freelance writer. It was a time when male-dominated newsrooms made it difficult for women to get hard-hitting stories.