A plainspoken roundup of Steinem’s 50th‑anniversary foreword: how Ms. began, what the first issue contained, how readers responded, and the institutional barriers the magazine confronted and changed.
The preview issue carried politically risky material—on welfare, lesbian love, and an anonymous petition declaring 'We Have Had Abortions'—and these choices helped turn the magazine into a vehicle for activism as well as journalism.
Steinem framed Ms. as an organizing tool: readers’ letters made many feel less isolated, and the magazine aimed to expand public understanding of women’s full range of interests and political claims.
Film + TV Epstein Birth Control Maternal Health Trump Herstory National Editor's note: Gloria Steinem, the pioneering feminist journalist, activist and cofounder of Ms. For more than half a century, Steinem helped bring feminist ideas, voices and movements into the mainstream through journalism, organizing and activism—and helped build Ms.
published a modern-day reprise in 2021 calling attention to the overburdening of women during the COVID-19 pandemic and this time putting the onus where it belongs: it's titled "The Nation's Moment of Truth.") The Ms. Readers' letters were a source of encouragement and support and editorial ideas. brought national attention to issues years before they were covered elsewhere: domestic abuse, sexual harassment, acquaintance rape, sweatshop work, the national need for child care, limits on military spending.
Gloria Steinem on Ms., the Feminist Movement and the Work Still Ahead. into what it remains today: not simply a magazine, but a movement. She continued working for equality until the end of her life.
"Feminism is positive, widely embraced and global. It is spreading and growing. That gives me hope." In one of her final interviews, the late Gloria Steinem discusses her new memoir and the optimism that fueled her feminism. “The written word has always been magic to me,” Gloria Steinem—celebrated writer, feminist acti
The feminist icon thought many women would carry on her legacy. But at an unsteady time for feminism, how will the movement carry on?
Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing figure in the women's liberation movement, died on Sept. 2, 2026 at age 92. In this extended interview recorded in 2023 and posted for the first time, Steinem talked with correspondent Rita Braver about the challenges facing female journalists in the 1960s; the founding of Ms. Magazine, a
Gloria Steinem, the journalist, organizer and cofounder of Ms. whose name became inseparable from the modern movement for women’s equality, died Wednesday, Sept. 2, at her home in New York City. She was 92. In 2001, Gloria came to Ellie Smeal and me to discuss the possibility of the Feminist Majority Foundation taking
In our Fall 2026 issue, we remember Gloria not only for the words she wrote, the organizations she helped build or the barriers she broke, but for the connections she made. Perhaps her greatest gift was her ability to listen, to make people feel capable of changing the world, and to build relationships across generatio
The feminist icon insisted that women were not a niche audience — and proved it in 1971 with the start of an influential publication owned and operated by them.
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