Gloria Steinem, Feminist Icon Who Shaped a Century of Women's Rights, Dies at 92

Gloria Steinem, the writer, activist and journalist whose decades of campaigning helped reshape the lives of women across the world, has died at the age of 92. Her foundation confirmed she passed away peacefully at her home in New York City on Wednesday, surrounded by those who loved her.

"Gloria's near-century on earth were years well-lived," the foundation wrote in a statement posted to Instagram, "and she continued working for equality until the very end."

Born in Toledo, Ohio, on 25 March 1934, Steinem's path to becoming one of America's most recognisable feminist voices was anything but straightforward. She did not attend school full-time until she was 12, and it was only after studying at university and spending two years in India on a research scholarship — where she helped village women organise non-violent protests — that her passion for grassroots activism truly ignited.

She arrived in New York City in the early 1960s as a freelance writer, and her career took flight with a landmark 1963 exposé on the working conditions of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Bunnies. From there, she became a columnist at New York Magazine before co-founding Ms. magazine in the early 1970s — one of the first national publications created and run entirely by women, bringing issues of reproductive rights, domestic violence and equality squarely into the mainstream.

Throughout the 1970s, Steinem was among the most vocal campaigners for women's reproductive rights. She had herself obtained an illegal abortion in London at the age of 22, and later celebrated the US Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v Wade ruling — only to witness its reversal nearly five decades on. She also campaigned vigorously for the legalisation of same-sex marriage, equal pay, and against the death penalty and female genital mutilation. In 1984, she was arrested while protesting against apartheid outside the South African embassy in Washington.

In 2013, then-President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States.

Steinem famously resisted marriage for much of her life before wedding South African-born entrepreneur and environmentalist David Bale — father of actor Christian Bale — in 2000. He died three years later from brain lymphoma.

Among those who grew close to Steinem in her later years was the Duchess of Sussex, who forged a genuine friendship with her after moving to California. The pair met regularly and held public discussions on issues including women's suffrage and abortion rights. Steinem described the Duchess as "wonderful" when presenting her with a 2023 Women of Vision award for her global advocacy work.

Tributes poured in on Thursday, with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among the first to pay her respects.

Steinem's foundation revealed she spent her final years writing and hosting "Talking Circles" — intimate gatherings welcoming guests into her home to discuss the issues she had championed her entire life.

A forthcoming book, An Unexpected Life, is among the last gifts she leaves the world. Her home is set to be preserved as a permanent site for the feminist movement, with her spokesman encouraging donations to Gloria's Foundation to support the cause.

Steinem was a writer whose wit was as sharp as her politics. Among her most celebrated observations: "Women have always been an equal part of the past. We just haven't been a part of history." And, with characteristic defiance: "We are the women our parents warned us against, and we are proud."

She wrote nine books across her lifetime, and her team confirmed that writing remained her focus until the very end — a fitting final chapter for a woman who once said: "Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else."

The foundation did not give a cause of death. Gloria Steinem was 92.