Julie Burton, President and CEO of the Women’s Media Center (WMC), released a statement on behalf of the Women’s Media Center mourning the passing of WMC Co-Founder Gloria Steinem
Julie Burton noted, “Gloria once wrote a letter to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, author of the Roe v. Wade decision, thanking him for saving more women’s lives than anyone in U.S. History. We could say the same about Gloria’s impact on women’s lives, because for decades she was at the forefront of the struggle for political and social equality and justice for women. She used her voice and writing to raise visibility for women and the issues of our time. We came to take it for granted that she would always be where she was most needed — at the podium, on TV, on the plane, on the phone, or at the computer — to make the ideal of social justice a reality. Her phrases have become mottoes of our time. She is well known for having been a founder of Ms. magazine and for her writing and media work. But she was also a co-founder and president of the political organization Voters For Choice, where for decades she worked tirelessly to elect women and pro-choice candidates up and down the ballot across the country, including the first pro-choice president in U.S. history. Her activism and fundraising directly transformed the U.S. Congress and state legislatures: Growing numbers of women are in these places because of the endeavors of Gloria Steinem.”
Burton noted that this Women’s Media Center statement includes tributes from the WMC Co-Founders, Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan, and WMC Board Officers: Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, WMC Board Chair Erica González Martínez, WMC Board Vice Chair; Soraya Chemaly, WMC Board Assistant Treasurer; and Julie Burton, WMC President and CEO.
Jane Fonda, Co-Founder of the Women’s Media Center, shared these thoughts:Gloria, in her graceful, kind, and deeply intelligent way, changed the world we live in. For decades, she trudged through every airport in the country, in sandals and a trench, carrying her own suitcase, packed with a few black clothes, hair curlers, and steam iron, in order to speak to women — at conferences, town halls, consciousness raising groups. No group was too small to deserve Gloria’s time. This is how she built the new women’s movement. And for a good part of those trips, she insisted she be joined by her friends Dorothy Pitman Hughes and, later, Florynce Kennedy, two prominent Black activists who helped show that this women’s movement addressed race as well as gender.
She had a clever, often funny way to say just what was needed to surface feelings and ideas about where we belonged, what our inchoate yearnings meant, whether power was a word that women could and should embrace for ourselves, and how different power looked when held in men’s hands alone.
She helped so many of us find our voices and the courage to stand up for ourselves and for other women. Gloria’s work and legacy lives on in the women’s movement and the many women’s organizations she co-founded — Ms. magazine, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, Women’s Action Alliance, Voters For Choice, URGE, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the ERA Coalition, Equality Now, Frontline Women’s Fund, Gloria’s Foundation, and, of course, the Women’s Media Center.
I believe that she lives on in the changed lives of many women who don’t consider themselves feminists or part of the women’s movement. I’ve met many such women who because of what Gloria said or wrote gained the courage to leave bad marriages, start their own businesses, persuade husbands to help with household chores.
Some of her quotes that have been most helpful for me: “Feminism doesn’t lead to matriarchy. Feminism leads to democracy.” (paraphrased)
“My life’s ambition is to make white women as smart as Black women. Because the group of women who still vote against their own self-interest are white married women.”
“It’s not that women are morally superior to men, we just don’t have to prove our masculinity.”
I am so glad we co-founded the Women’s Media Center together and that I got to spend time with her strategizing, raising money, and going on the talk circuit to advocate for an equal place for women in media (one time, on The Colbert Report, Gloria, Stephen, and I made apple pie while talking about women and media, making the point that feminism is as American as apple pie). She made the hard work of organizing both meaningful and fun. She will always hold a special place in history because she lives on in each of us, in how we live, in so many of the decisions we make. I can’t believe she is gone — every moment we got with her was a blessing.Robin Morgan, Co-Founder of the Women’s Media Center, has shared friendship, sisterhood, work, and life with Gloria for decades (and Gloria was the godmother of Robin’s son, Blake Morgan). Robin and Gloria, along with Ms. magazine co-founders Suzanne Braun Levine, Joanne Edgar, and Mary Thom (deceased), dined together once a month for over three decades, building and nurturing the women’s movement and each other. As she says farewell to this dear friend, her heart is also with her other friends, and she shares this poem, written for the women who keep each other going year after year. Now, with the passing of Gloria, there are three …Giants at the Corner Table, by Robin Morgan
(For SBL, JE, GS, and MT)
New at being old, they marvel at it:
aches in places they never knew they had,
memory lapses, the unrecognizable
stooped image scurrying past
the shop window reflection.
They laugh about it wryly, comparing notes.
These particular new old women have been friends
and colleagues for 40 years. For 30 of those years,
once jobs took them on differing paths,
all five have met for dinner every month
no matter what other social occasions
they might also share. Close to 400 dinners.
They have marched and picketed, lobbied,
fundraised, sat in; still do. And seen each other through
childbirths, weddings, divorce, hospitals, book parties,
funerals, birthdays. They bring small presents
back from trips, share running jokes. They’ve learned
to tolerate in one another what they could not love.
And they have rituals:
the white wine drinker who likes a separate glass of ice;
the one who brightens when ordering dessert;
the one who can’t stand cinnamon in her cappuccino;
the one who would dine at 5 PM if they let her;
the one who takes home leftovers for next day’s lunch.
One has been married for 40 years yet stayed herself.
Two stayed themselves and never married.
One married late and briefly,
the fifth early and long, freeing herself at last.
Two have grown children,
three have lived child-free. Five.
Well, it was five. One now lost — to youth, the irony
being that despite her age she was so young she rode
her motorbike to the final moment, doing what she loved.
Then there were four. No one now takes cinnamon in her cappuccino.
There will be three someday, then two, then one.
That one will carry in herself some of the best of all of us
because in each other’s presence some of the best
of each of us came forth. And when she goes,
the women we were to one another
will all wink out, the work we’ve shared
lasting perhaps a little while beyond us.
For now, we go on witnessing each other ride the current
out to sea, aware our time’s not open ended.
We cling like lovers when we part, we say
I love you before hanging up the phone, and one
to one we all confide concerns about the others’ health.
Laughter’s astringency balances such tenderness.
But when young ones, unseasoned, condescend,
a voice in each of us hisses Watch it, child. You have no clue
who’s living under this disguise; for if our true height
could be measured, you’d see how low we stoop for you,
how if we straightened we would wear
the clouds for garlands in our hair.Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, WMC Board Chair, offered this tribute:I had the honor of meeting Gloria Steinem over 50 years ago and have admired her and loved her ever since. Her influence on my life and career is profound. I often say that she is responsible for much of my career as a writer, editor, and feminist activist. Coming full circle, in 2020, Gloria Steinem joined Pat Mitchell in nominating me to chair the board of the Women’s Media Center, an honor I find humbling.
Gloria was a peerless editor. It was my good fortune that Gloria edited my 1973 Ms. interview of Josephine Hulett, field officer of the National Committee on Household Employment, an organization fighting for fair wages and working conditions for household workers, such as Jo and my mother. Her first review of my article was not enthusiastic, in that she noted while the writing itself was acceptable, it lacked passion and a palpable sense of purpose. Her gentle but precise criticism continues to fuel my writing and my life. Gloria was a writer-activist and joined in on-the-ground efforts to extend the federal minimum wage to household workers. She hosted organizing meetings in her home and attended rallies around the country.
When I became a program director and producer at National Public Radio, I was privileged to arrange an interview with Gloria about the First National Women’s Conference in 1977. I met Gloria in the lobby and asked if she was still tap-dancing. Rather than respond verbally, she stood up and started tapping away to the astonishment and delight of staff and visitors. I see her now, dancing her way to Heaven, as she celebrates an unparalleled life of commitment, integrity, joy — and yes, love. May she rest in peace and power.In 2005, Gloria, with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan, co-founded the Women’s Media Center. Julie Burton explained, “The Women’s Media Center was not founded in Gloria’s home — the idea was inspired at an international women’s gathering — but it was in Gloria’s living room in 2005 where our first organizing meeting took place — with co-founders Robin Morgan and Jane Fonda, as well as women luminaries, journalists, and activists joining together to create an organization to make women more powerful and visible in the media. Today WMC produces original on-air and online journalism by and about women. WMC documents and fights structural sexism and racism in media. And the organization Gloria helped create continues to advance opportunities for women in media through connected strategies of training women journalists and leaders and promoting them as experts to media.” In a WMC video called “In The Beginning…,” directed and produced by the acclaimed filmmaker Donna Deitch, Gloria explained, “Jane, Robin, and Gloria were sitting at a table at a conference, complaining about the media, and we thought, as organizers — each one of us — that it was high time we did something about it.” In a video from the early days of WMC, Gloria said, “I’m a co-founder of the Women’s Media Center, but I am also someone who needs the Women’s Media Center. Now, for the first time in my life, I can go to the Women’s Media Center and say, ‘Here’s this idea,’ and have confidence that a professional organization is going to take it over and maximize it. Every time you hear yourself saying, ‘Oh, this isn’t what I want to see in the media’ or ask, ‘Why are they perpetuating that stereotype,’ you should write a check to WMC and that will really make a difference.”
Erica González Martínez, WMC Board Vice Chair, said, “Over decades, many Latinas took inspiration from the incomparable Gloria Steinem, who showed so much support and enthusiasm for launching the WMC channel IDAR/E, the Women’s Media Center’s English/Spanish channel that spotlights the voices and impact of diverse Latinas on a range of current and emerging issues. Gloria understood that more space needed to be made for the voices and stories of Latinas. She relished learning about Jovita Idar. I will miss seeing her at WMC gatherings, where we were all deeply aware of how special it was to connect with a feminist icon who broke barriers, but who beyond those accomplishments was a loving human being who felt the light and power among women, and worked with every breath to leap that force forward.”
Soraya Chemaly, WMC Board Assistant Treasurer, stated, “It’s impossible to convey the meaning and impact of Gloria’s life and thinking. Her brilliant words, tireless work, and bottomless generosity of spirit shaped the feminist movement and defined an era of American history. The Women’s Media Center is the result of her vision, and we are proud of this legacy. We continue her work and pursue her vision with pride and gratitude.”
Earlier this year, during the Women’s Media Awards, Gloria presented the evening’s closing remarks in a video from her beautiful home with this message:In a just world, these kinds of feminist storytellers, leaders, and activists — our honorees — would be fully and accurately featured in the media. Until we live in that just world — where women matter, where truth matters — I am proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my co-founders, Robin and Jane, and the amazing staff and Board of the Women’s Media Center as we strive to realize that vision. Which is why each and every one of you matters. Because of you, we have great research on the status of women in media. Because of you, we have WMC Live with the great Robin Morgan and original, feminist journalism every week. Because of you, women experts are made available to media every day. Because of you, frontline leaders — like the three activists we honored tonight — get training in how to be effective in media. All of this is because of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.Julie Burton added, “The history of the women’s movement has been a struggle for women’s voices to be heard. In the tradition of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gloria has forever changed our country. We at the Women’s Media Center cannot imagine a world without Gloria. How lucky we were to get to work with her for so many years! Her brilliant writing, tireless advocacy, intelligence, and humor have carried and propelled our dreams, but it was always her warmth and kindness that gave us the courage to take the fight for women’s rights and equality wherever it needed to go. She set free our strength, heart, and imagination. We move forward on the foundation she helped establish. We will honor her by continuing the work until women have an equal place everywhere in society.”
A few years ago, for Gloria’s 85th birthday, the Women’s Media Center celebrated this happy occasion by collecting birthday greetings and loving tributes from over 85 artists, journalists, activists, and many lifelong friends from around the globe expressing what the women’s rights pioneer meant to them and to the feminist movement. Many conjure up an experience or memory that exemplified Gloria Steinem, or a personal insight about the impact she had. Those greetings and memories are posted on the WMC website here.
Gloria Steinem, journalist, author, activist, feminist and organizer dies
