Liberator in History: Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem didn’t set out to be a feminist icon or liberator. She was a reporter who wanted to tell the truth about what she saw and experienced.

In 1963, she went undercover at a Playboy Club in New York and worked as a Bunny. Her story, “A Bunny’s Tale,” exposed the humiliating treatment, low pay, and demands placed on the women who worked there. It made her famous. But it also showed her something bigger: women were being told, in countless ways, what they were worth and what they were allowed to be.

Gloria wasn’t alone in seeing it. Betty Friedan was challenging the narrow definition of a woman’s life. Shirley Chisholm was breaking political barriers. Bella Abzug was taking on Washington. Fannie Lou Hamer was fighting for voting rights. Thousands of women were organizing in their communities, workplaces, and homes.

But Gloria had something irresistible: charisma and the courage to use it to build a national coalition.

She listened to women who were subjected to illegal abortions, unequal pay, no access to credit, and denial of opportunities granted to less experienced men. She marched. She testified. She organized. She helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus, worked for the Equal Rights Amendment, and became one of the most recognizable public voices of the women’s movement.

Then came Ms.

Steinem and a remarkable group of women created Ms. as a magazine where women could talk about their actual lives—not just fashion, marriage, recipes, and how to please a husband. The first issue tackled abortion, welfare, discrimination, and the simple idea that women were people with lives and choices of their own. The preview issue sold out 300,000 copies in eight days.

The title itself became part of the revolution. “Ms.” gave women a way to identify themselves without announcing whether they were married. Steinem didn't invent the term, but she and Ms. helped take it from an obscure proposal to a word Americans knew and used. Today, it is an ordinary title on forms, correspondence, and official documents.

The changes the women’s movement fought for reached far beyond magazine pages. Since 1963, after “A Bunny’s Tail” was published, Gloria became a lightning rod that revolutionized a woman’s role in domestic life and rights in the workplace.

Laws were changed. Benefits were enacted. Women gained rights and privileges previously denied them.

• Equal pay became a legal right 
• Workplace sex discrimination became illegal 
• Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace became illegal 
• Title IX opened educational opportunities to women and girls 
• Women gained the legal right to obtain credit in their own names 
• Women gained greater financial independence 
• Women could buy homes and obtain loans without a husband's signature  
• Sexual harassment became recognized as sex discrimination 
• Women entered professions that had previously been dominated by men 
• Women gained greater access to contraception 
• Abortion became a constitutional right under Roe v. Wade in 1973, until Roe was overturned in 2022 
• Women gained greater control over when and whether to have children 
• Domestic violence became recognized as a serious social and legal issue 
• Women became a much stronger political force 
• More women entered elected office 
• Women's experiences became legitimate subjects of national conversation 
• “Ms.” became an accepted title that did not identify a woman's marital status 
• Women gained greater opportunities in sports 
• Girls grew up seeing college and professional careers as possibilities 
• Women increasingly challenged traditional expectations about marriage, motherhood and careers 
• Women became more willing to demand respect at work and at home 
• Women increasingly believed they could make their own choices about their lives 

We’re not saying Gloria did it all on her own, but her dynamic, tireless presence in the women’s movement inspired women here and worldwide to fight for their equal rights. 

Her greatest gift may have been that she never seemed to believe the future was already decided. “Hope is a form of planning,” she said.

She helped women imagine a different life—and then gave them the courage to build it.