African American Studies--Scholars Voices Series--When and Where I Enter: Selected Writings of Gloria Steinem

After graduating from Smith College in 1956, Steinem went to India on a scholarship. There she participated in nonviolent protests against government policy. In 1960 she began working as a writer and journalist in New York City. Steinem gained attention in 1963 with her article “I Was a Playboy Bunny,” which recounted her experience as a scantily clad waitress at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club. By 1968 Steinem’s work had become more overtly political. She began writing a column, “The City Politic,” for New York magazine. Her involvement in feminism intensified in 1968 when she attended a meeting of a radical feminist group, the Redstockings. Proud of her feminist roots—her paternal grandmother had served as president of the Ohio Women’s Suffrage Association from 1908 to 1911—Steinem founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in July 1971 with Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, and Shirley Chisholm. That same year she began exploring the possibility of a new magazine for women, one that treated contemporary issues from a feminist perspective. The result was Ms. Magazine, which first appeared as an insert in the December 1971 issue of New York. The following year the first stand-alone issue was published.

Steinem gave much of her time to political organizations and became an articulate advocate for the women’s liberation movement. She participated in the founding of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Voters for Choice, Women Against Pornography, and the Women’s Media Center. In 2016 she hosted the television documentary series Woman with Gloria Steinem, which focused on issues that concerned females. Her publications include the essay collections Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983) and Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of Gender (1994); Revolution from Within (1992), a work on self-esteem for women; and Marilyn (1997), about Marilyn Monroe. Steinem also wrote the memoir My Life on the Road (2015).