Gloria Steinem- "a women without a man is like a fish without a bicycle"

Feminist, Journalist, Social and  Political Activist, and Editor ,Gloria Steinem was a quintessential part in the women's liberation movement of the 60's and 70s.

Born in 1934 in Ohio, Steinem grew up in a divorced family. Her father Leo Steinem was a traveling antiques salesman while her mother, who Steinem lived with, battled the effects of a subtle mental illness. When Steinem mother was unable to take and hold a job to support the family, Gloria "concluded that her mother's inability to hold on to a job was evidence of general hostility towards working women". Thus starting her on a path to fight for what she believed were political and social injustices for women.

While in her journalism career Gloria made major contributions such as the co-founding the Ms magazine as well as assisting in the founding of the New York Magazine Steinem's career began as a freelance writer in Esquire magazine. Her career as a journalist however, took of in 1963 after she published an article called "A Bunny's Tail" in Huntington Hartfords Show magazine.



The article was an undercover piece she had written exposing the truth of how employees were treated in Hugh Hefner's New York Playboy Lounge. She specifically targeted the sexual mistreatment of the girls which "skirted the edge of the law".When I read her published article in the magazine Steinem gave an in detail day by day journal of her experience.  The security and men for example would call things like "here bunny bunny" and Gloria also mentioned how girls as young as 18 were allowed to work as bunnies. While the expose was a hit, for a short time after Steinem was unable to land other assignments as she had blown her cover.

Six years later Gloria wrote another hard hitting article this time as the cover of New York Magazine; a magazine she had played a role in founding. This piece was on in which she covered an abortion speak out taking place in Greenwich New York. Having had an abortion herself at the age of 22, Steinem was particularly invested in this project and later went on to say she "didn't begin her life as an active feminist until that day".

While Gloria's journalism career was extremely successful as she further went on to write articles for Cosmopolitan and Time Magazine  as well as co-founding the Ms magazine , she was probably most well known for her role as a feminist and an activist. During her lifetime thus far she has had many notable contributions including the founding of many organizations. Some of her these include founding the Women's Action Alliance, the Women's Political Caucus, p the Voters for Choice- "a pro choice political action committee for twenty five years"- the Ms. Foundation for Women "a national multiracial, multi-issue fund that supports grassroots projects to empower women and girls" and on top of it all, was the founder of "Take Our Daughter to Work Day"  the first national day devoted to girls. And all of that only scratches the surface of her contributions.

To this day she still travels the world as a media spokesperson on the issues of gender inequality. Looking back on her today its hard to imagine where women would be without the contributions of empowering role models like Gloria Steinem.


Bib:

Link to her article "A Bunny's Tale"
http://sites.dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/sites/dlib.nyu.edu.undercover/files/documents/uploads/editors/Show-A%20Bunny%27s%20Tale-Part%20Two-June%201963.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem#Early_life

http://www.gloriasteinem.com/about/

http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/gloria-steinem