A focused summary of the origin, memorable episodes, and recurring themes from the feminist seder Gloria Steinem helped found in 1976, drawn from accounts collected by Kveller and E.M. Broner.
The feminist seder began in Manhattan in 1976 as a ritual that connected biblical women to modern women's equality and continued for over two decades.
Gloria Steinem was both a sustaining presence and a source of practical, personal counsel at the seder table — contributing ritual additions, leadership advice, and memorable moments.
The group adapted the seder format purposefully: publishing a haggadah in Ms., rotating ritual roles (including a 'daughters' night), and inventing new plagues that addressed contemporary political and personal concerns.
# Background and origin In 1976 four women — E.M. Broner, Phyllis Chesler, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Gloria Steinem — met in Manhattan for a seder that explicitly linked the women of the Exodus story to the struggle for women's equality. The ritual they began endured for more than twenty years and inspired many other feminist seders.
# How the seder spread and was sustained
# A small anecdote that mattered: the cake and wine duty
# Leadership, advice, and ritual changes In 1988 the seder introduced a night led by "the daughters" — either the participants' actual daughters or younger women chosen as spiritual daughters. At that seder Steinem offered concise counsel that became part of the group's ethos: trust the wisdom of everybody, avoid hierarchy, trust your own wisdom, and follow your joy. She later described what she learned about being mothered by daughters.
# New plagues for a modern seder Like many seders, the feminist seder added to the traditional ten plagues. Steinem proposed several additions that mixed political critique with personal vulnerability. Examples she contributed included a call to stop "killing each other with our words," a critique of losing one's center by placing it in others, a lament about discontinuous history, and a critique of books that promote abusive dynamics. In 1995 she listed a plague that was personal: nerve pain.
# Roles and symbolic standing Participants regarded the founders as "mothers" of the seder. At the 1995 gathering Broner listed guests as blessings and singled out Steinem as "our Moses for decades," using biblical language to name her guiding presence. That language reflects how the group combined feminist reinterpretation with traditional ritual frames.
# Themes that reappear in Steinem's contributions Several recurring themes show up in Steinem's remarks at the seder: valuing shared wisdom across generations, resisting rigid hierarchies, acknowledging personal limits (especially around anger and center), and reimagining biblical women's stories (for example, discussions about Ruth and Naomi or imagining Deborah saying no). These themes guided how the ritual evolved and how participants taught one another.
# What the seder meant to participants E.M. Broner described the group as a tribe — a circle that met, bonded, planned, and argued together. For attendees the seder was more than ceremony: it was a sustained practice that combined political commitment, spiritual exploration, and personal counsel over decades.
By now, you’ve probably heard the sad news that Gloria Steinem, the trailblazing feminist activist, has died at the age of 92. Known as a leader of second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 70s, her illustrious career as a writer, activist and public figure is legendary. Born in Toledo, Ohio to a Jewish father and […] The
Gloria Steinem appears on ABC-TV's "Issues And Answers" program with Rep. John Conyers Jr., Dec. 26, 1971. (AP Photo/Jim Wells, File) Writer, activist and feminist trailblazer Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92. Her spokesperson confirmed that, on 2 September, she passed “peacefully at her home in New York City,
The influential writer and activist who died this week was a trailblazer for women in journalism and politics. Throughout her life, she showed a willingness to learn from her critics and adapt to new political realities
Gloria Steinem, the journalist and organizer who became the most recognizable face of America’s modern women’s movement, died Wednesday at her New York City home. She was 92. For more than half a century, Steinem pushed American women to imagine lives beyond the limits society had set for them. She co-founded Ms. magaz
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