Gloria Steinem facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gloria Steinem
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Steinem in 2018
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Gloria Marie Steinem
March 25, 1934 Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
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| Education | Smith College (BA) |
| Occupation | Writer and journalist for Ms. and New York magazines |
| Movement | Feminism |
| Board member of | Women's Media Center |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Relatives | Christian Bale (stepson) |
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Gloria Marie Steinem ( born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist.
Contents
Early life
Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, the daughter of Ruth (née Nuneviller) and Leo Steinem. Her mother was Presbyterian, mostly of German (including Prussian) and some Scottish descent. Her father was Jewish, the son of immigrants from Württemberg, Germany, and Radziejów, Poland. Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was chairwoman of the educational committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association, a delegate to the 1908 International Council of Women, and the first woman to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education, as well as a leader in the movement for vocational education. Pauline also rescued many members of her family from the Holocaust.
The Steinems lived and traveled about in a trailer, from which Leo carried out his trade as a roaming antiques dealer. Before Gloria was born, her mother, Ruth, then age 34, had a "nervous breakdown" which left her an invalid, trapped in delusional fantasies that occasionally turned violent. She changed "from an energetic, fun-loving, book-loving" woman into "someone who was afraid to be alone, who could not hang on to reality long enough to hold a job, and who could rarely concentrate enough to read a book." Ruth spent long periods in and out of sanatoriums for the mentally ill. Steinem was ten years old when her parents separated in 1944. Her father went to California to find work, while she and her mother continued to live together in Toledo.
While her parents divorced under the stress of her mother's illness, Steinem did not attribute it at all to male chauvinism on the father's part—she claims to have "understood and never blamed him for the breakup." Nevertheless, the impact of these events had a formative effect on her personality: while her father, a traveling salesman, had never provided much financial stability to the family, his exit aggravated their situation. Steinem concluded that her mother's inability to hold on to a job was evidence of general hostility towards working women. She also concluded that the general apathy of doctors towards her mother emerged from a similar anti-woman animus. Years later, Steinem described her mother's experience as pivotal to her understanding of social injustices. These perspectives convinced Steinem that women lacked social and political equality.
Steinem attended Waite High School in Toledo and Western High School in Washington, D.C., graduating from the latter while living with her older sister Susanne Steinem Patch. She then attended Smith College, an institution with which she continues to remain engaged, from which she received her A.B. magna cum laude and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
In the late 1950s, Steinem spent two years in India as a Chester Bowles Asian Fellow. After returning to the United States, she served as director of the Independent Research Service, an organization funded in secret by a donor that turned out to be the CIA. She worked to send non-Communist American students to the 1959 World Youth Festival. In 1960, she was hired by Warren Publishing as the first employee of Help! magazine.
In 1950s, she was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, and later she went ahead to model her campaign after Gandhi's independence movement.
Journalism and activism
Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation," which brought her national attention and positioned her as a feminist leader. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus which provides training and support for women who seek elected and appointed offices in government. Also in 1971, she co-founded the Women's Action Alliance which, until 1997, provided support to a network of feminist activists and worked to advance feminist causes and legislation. In the 1990s, Steinem helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day, an occasion for young girls to learn about future career opportunities. In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that "works to make women visible and powerful in the media."
As of May 2018[update], Steinem was traveling internationally as an organizer and lecturer, and was a media spokeswoman on issues of equality. In 2015, Steinem, alongside two Nobel Peace Laureates (Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia), Abigail Disney, and other prominent women peace activists, undertook a journey from the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang to South Korea, crossing the most heavily militarized zone in the world between the two Koreas.
Also in 1972, Steinem became the first woman to speak at the National Press Club.
In 2013 she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama.
Personal life
On September 3, 2000, at age 66, Steinem married David Bale, father of actor Christian Bale. The wedding was performed at the home of her friend Wilma Mankiller, the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Steinem technically became stepmother to Bale's four adult children; she has no biological children. Steinem and Bale were married for only three years before he died of brain lymphoma on December 30, 2003, at age 62.
Steinem was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986 and trigeminal neuralgia in 1994.
Commenting on aging, Steinem says that as she approached 60 she felt like she entered a new phase in life that was free of the "demands of gender" that she faced from adolescence onward.
Steinem lives alone in New York's Upper East Side, where she owns the first three floors of her historic brownstone apartment. In 2021, on her 87th birthday, Google Arts & Culture launched a virtual tour of her home, where she has lived since 1966.
Awards and honors
- American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California's Bill of Rights Award
- American Humanist Association's 2012 Humanist of the Year (2012)
- BBC's 100 Women list (2023).
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law's International Advocate for Peace Award
- Biography magazine's 25 most influential women in America (Steinem was listed as one of them)
- Clarion award
- DVF Lifetime Leadership Award (2014)
- Emmy Citation for excellence in television writing
- Esquire's 75 greatest women of all time (Steinem was listed as one of them) (2010)
- Equality Now's international human rights award, given jointly to her and Efua Dorkenoo (2000)
- FAO CERES Medal
- Front Page award
- Glamour magazine's "The 75 Most Important Women of the Past 75 Years" (Steinem was listed as one of them) (2014)
- Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's Liberty Award
- Library Lion award (2015)
- The Ms. Foundation for Women's Gloria Awards, given annually since 1988, are named after Steinem.
- National Gay Rights Advocates Award
- National Magazine awards
- National Women's Hall of Fame inductee (1993)
- New York Women's Foundation's Century Award (2014)
- Parenting's Lifetime Achievement Award (1995)
- Penney-Missouri Journalism Award
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013)
- Rutgers University announced the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in September 2014. The Chair was created to fund teaching and research for someone (not necessarily a woman) who exemplifies Steinem's values of equal representation in the media, and to have this person teach at least one undergraduate course per semester.
- Sara Curry Humanitarian Award (2007)
- Simmons College's Doctorate of Human Justice
- Society of Professional Journalists' Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award
- Supersisters trading card set (card number 32 featured Steinem's name and picture) (1979)
- United Nations' Ceres Medal
- United Nations' Society of Writers Award
- University of Missouri School of Journalism Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism
- Women's Sports Journalism Award
- 2015 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
- Recipient of the 2017 Ban Ki-moon Award For Women's Empowerment
- On May 20, 2019, Steinem received an honorary degree from Yale University.
- On May 19, 2021, Steinem received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.
See also
In Spanish: Gloria Steinem para niños
Images for kids
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Steinem speaking with supporters at the Women Together Arizona Summit at Carpenters Local Union in Phoenix, Arizona, September 2016.
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The first issue of Ms., released in 1972
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Steinem on the cover of Ms. in 2002
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