To the Editor:
Re “Gloria Steinem, 1934-2026: Her Voice, Pen and Vigor Lifted Countless Women” (obituary, front page, Sept. 4):
When I learned of the death of Gloria Steinem, I reflected on the early days of second-wave feminism, a movement that changed the life trajectories of so many women, including me.
Ms. magazine hit the newsstands in 1972, a time when sexism was an accepted norm. Gloria understood, as she wrote in a New York Times essay in 1971, that the “first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.”
Since the suffragist movement, people have fought for equality in the courts. However, Gloria and other activists helped us understand how sexism was embedded in the personal realm — schools, churches, workplaces and homes. With her clear, logical and often humorous words, she helped us see how deeply socialized gender norms limited opportunities for everyone.
It was nothing short of a paradigm shift, but for high school students like me, the women’s movement offered a scaffold for my shaky dreams. Thanks to Gloria we have been able to question and unlearn old rules and build new ones. The work continues.
Kathleen McCartney Newburyport, Mass. The writer is a president emerita of Smith College, from which Gloria Steinem graduated in 1956.
To the Editor:
Writing Gloria Steinem’s biography was one of the most meaningful events of my life. When I updated it in 2023, I was struck yet again by her incalculably generous life of service and heartened by her continued optimism in the face of the attempts to systematically dismantle the work to which she had dedicated that life.
I hope that among her many accomplishments, her skill as an organizer — a less visible, less lauded, but crucially important contribution — will not be forgotten.
From a New York Times 2022 Opinion Round Table celebrating Ms. magazine’s 50th anniversary:
“What do you say to young women when they ask you where we go from here?”
“Steinem: I don’t say to them; I listen to them. That’s the whole idea. I’m not lecturing them. I’m saying, you know, ‘What do you want to do? What do you want to be? And how can I help you?’”
Sydney Ladensohn Stern New York The writer is the author of “Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics and Mystique.”
To the Editor:
My mother was quietly frugal. After all, she was a child of the Great Depression. So in 1972, when she subscribed to the first issue of Ms. magazine, I knew what a statement of support for feminism she was making, and I was so proud of her for it.
In the late 1970s, when I was living in Manhattan after architecture school, I went to hear Gloria Steinem speak to an obscure women’s group on the Upper West Side. She was of course impassioned and articulate about women’s rights. But what struck me most was that this feminist icon was so approachable and modest in person, and willing to talk with a small group about big issues.
Suzanne Koblentz Goodman Asheville, N.C.
To the Editor:
I mourn the passing of Gloria Steinem from this world with deep personal gratitude for the energy, intelligence, strategy and strength she gave to the movement that deeply changed, and possibly saved, my life. It certainly taught me to think critically about the world around me and about myself in it.
With outrageously toxic masculinity in both the Oval Office and the manosphere, the groundwork laid by Ms. Steinem and the other female warriors is crucial to our perseverance.
The secret of Ms. Steinem’s power as a thinker and leader was her deep understanding that genuine revolutions are concerned with both the outer world of legal rights, economics and institutions, and the inner world of personal integrity, self-esteem and reflection.
I wish I could hear her sardonic observations on being remembered for her glamour (“Gloria Steinem’s Glamour Was a Means to an End,” Critic’s Notebook, nytimes.com, Sept. 3) and for her dating history.
Gail Griffin Kalamazoo, Mich.
To the Editor:
I came of age in the 1960s and ’70s. Gloria Steinem was there, exhorting me and other women, telling us with her voice and her pen that we could be more than society assumed we could be. And not just young women.
I brought home a copy of Ms. magazine, left it lying on the counter and later found my mother reading it, engrossed. We shared every issue and read Ms. Steinem’s books.
My mother also read “The Feminine Mystique,” by Betty Friedan, until her copy was falling apart. My mother knew better than I how society constrained women.
Thank you, Gloria Steinem, for helping to open our world.
Katharine Shapiro Eugene, Ore.
The post How Gloria Steinem Changed Our Lives appeared first on New York Times.
