Gloria Steinem Biography

On March 25, 1934, Gloria Marie Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, to Ruth and Leo Steinem. Until 1946, little Gloria and her mother drove around the country in a trailer with Leo, who sold antiques door to door. Ruth homeschooled her daughter, since they were never in one place long enough for Gloria to enroll in school full time. The year Gloria turned eight, though, her traveling lifestyle ended – her parents got a divorce, and Gloria went to live with her mother in Toledo. Gloria’s early years were anything but carefree; the young girl faced the enormous responsibility of caring for her mother, who suffered from chronic depression. Eventually, when she was a senior in high school, Gloria moved to Washington, D.C. to live with her older sister. The next year, she entered Smith College, which she graduated magna cum laude in 1956. Gloria’s lifelong devotion to activism may have been catalyzed by her first post-college experiences; after commencement, Gloria traveled to India, where she studied for the next two years. In India, Gloria first became aware of the need for social change across the globe – as she observed during her time on the subcontinent, “America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.” Once Gloria returned to the states, she put her newly developed social conscience to work by beginning a career in journalism. In 1960, she became the assistant editor of Help! magazine. She also did freelance work for several different publications. She wrote her first major investigative piece, entitled “A Bunny’s Tale,” about the experiences she had working as a waitress at a Playboy “gentleman’s club” for three weeks. The article was published in Show magazine in 1963. In it, Gloria exposed the sub par working conditions of the club – “bunnies” were underpaid and badly treated by customers. Her work after this became more overtly political and focused on women’s rights in particular – she wrote an article for Esquire about the way contemporary society forced women to choose between getting married or having a career, and in 1971, along with Bella Absug, Shirley Chrisholm, and Betty Friedan, she founded the National Women’s Political Caucus. A year later, Gloria created and began to serve as editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine, which looked at modern political and social issues from a feminist perspective. Over the next few decades, Gloria participated in the formation of several important feminist organizations, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Voters for Choice, and Women Against Pornography. Additionally, Gloria published several bestselling books, including Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, a collection of her essays (which includes “A Bunny’s Tale), and Marilyn: Norma Jean, a biography of film icon Marilyn Monroe. Although Gloria’s personal life has not always been free of challenges – her husband, David Bale, died only three years after they married, and she has suffered from both breast cancer and a rare nerve disease called trigeminal neuralgia – the 73-year-old activist is still a vigorous political force. She has not let personal tragedies slow her down; Gloria continues to be a role model for young women across the country and around the world.

Sources:
http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/steinem_g.htm
http://www.britannica.com/women/article-9069551
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1995/11/gorney.html