Latest / USA Daily News / GLORIA STEINEM’S FINAL BATTLE THE FEMINIST ICON WHO LIVED TO SEE AMERICA’S CULTURE WAR TURN BACK

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GLORIA STEINEM’S FINAL BATTLE THE FEMINIST ICON WHO LIVED TO SEE AMERICA’S CULTURE WAR TURN BACK · USA Daily News

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Speaker 1: Gloria Steinem spent more than half a century fighting to
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Speaker 1: expand the choices available to women, and she lived long
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Speaker 1: enough to see the country engage in a fierce new
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Speaker 1: argument over whether those choices represented liberation or a dangerous
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Speaker 1: rejection of traditional family life. Steinem, who died September 2nd
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Speaker 1: at age 92, became one of the most recognizable figures
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Speaker 1: of the modern American women's movement. but the story of
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Speaker 1: her life was never simply about one political campaign or
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Speaker 1: one generation of activists. It was about a continuing struggle
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Speaker 1: over who controls the direction of a woman's life, what
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Speaker 1: equality actually means, and whether social progress can survive a
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Speaker 1: political backlash. Her activism was launched in a particularly personal way.
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Speaker 1: In the late 1960s, after attending a meeting where women
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Speaker 1: discussed the dangers and humiliations surrounding abortion, Steinem publicly connected
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Speaker 1: her own experience to the larger movement for reproductive freedom.
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Speaker 1: She had undergone an abortion in London at age 22,
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Speaker 1: when abortion was illegal in most of the United States
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Speaker 1: and deeply stigmatized. That experience helped convince her that reproductive
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Speaker 1: decisions were inseparable from equality. Her argument was straightforward but
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Speaker 1: revolutionary for its time. If women could not decide whether
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Speaker 1: and when to have children, their ability to participate equally
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Speaker 1: in education, employment, politics, and public life would always be constrained.
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Speaker 1: From that point forward, Steinem became an activist, writer, organizer,
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Speaker 1: and public speaker whose influence reached far beyond abortion policy.
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Speaker 1: She helped build institutions, encouraged women to seek political office,
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Speaker 1: co-founded Ms. Magazine, and became one of the most recognizable
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Speaker 1: public faces of second-wave feminism. Her generation fought battles over
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Speaker 1: workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, credit, reproductive rights, and representation, and
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Speaker 1: many of the changes that followed transformed everyday American life.
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Speaker 1: When Steinem entered the movement, fewer than half of American
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Speaker 1: women were in the labor force, women could face discrimination
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Speaker 1: because of pregnancy, banks could demand male co-signers for credit,
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Speaker 1: and only a tiny number of women served in Congress. Today,
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Speaker 1: women make up a much larger share of the workforce,
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Speaker 1: women can obtain credit independently, and the number of women
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Speaker 1: serving in Congress is dramatically higher. Those changes did not
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Speaker 1: happen automatically. They came through decades of organizing, lawsuits, legislation, protests, journalism,
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Speaker 1: and cultural pressure. Steinem became one of the movement's most
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Speaker 1: visible symbols because she understood that changing laws was only
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Speaker 1: part of the challenge. social expectations could be just as
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Speaker 1: powerful as legal restrictions. She challenged the assumption that women
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Speaker 1: should organize their lives around marriage and motherhood, while insisting
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Speaker 1: that women who chose those paths should have equal dignity
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Speaker 1: and genuine freedom to make that decision. That distinction became
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Speaker 1: increasingly important later in her life. because the political opposition
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Speaker 1: to feminism evolved. Conservatives increasingly argued that the feminist movement
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Speaker 1: had encouraged women to postpone marriage, reject motherhood, and prioritize
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Speaker 1: careers at the expense of families. Some Christian conservative activists
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Speaker 1: began promoting a renewed emphasis on traditional gender roles, arguing
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Speaker 1: that men should lead households and women should embrace marriage
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Speaker 1: and motherhood as central purposes. The debate became especially intense
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Speaker 1: after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022,
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Speaker 1: ending the constitutional abortion protection that had existed for nearly
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Speaker 1: five decades. Steinem regarded the decision as a major setback,
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Speaker 1: while opponents of abortion celebrated it as a historic victory.
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Speaker 1: The political argument surrounding her legacy, therefore, became larger than
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Speaker 1: Steinem herself. It became a dispute over whether the social
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Speaker 1: changes associated with feminism represented progress or cultural decline. Supporters
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Speaker 1: of feminism argued that women should have the freedom to
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Speaker 1: choose careers, marriage, motherhood, or combinations of those paths without
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Speaker 1: government or social institutions forcing one model upon them. Critics
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Speaker 1: argued that feminism had contributed to declining birth rates, rising divorce,
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Speaker 1: and the weakening of marriage. Steinem's death therefore occurred at
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Speaker 1: a moment when the basic questions she spent her life
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Speaker 1: debating remained unresolved. The United States had changed enormously since
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Speaker 1: she entered the public arena, but the conflict over women's autonomy,
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Speaker 1: family structure, and gender roles had not disappeared. Instead, it
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Speaker 1: had returned in a different political form. Steinem's influence was
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Speaker 1: built not only through speeches and political activism, but through
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Speaker 1: her ability to turn complicated social questions into ideas that
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Speaker 1: ordinary Americans could understand. She recognized that discrimination often operated
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Speaker 1: through assumptions that appeared so normal people stopped questioning them.
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Speaker 1: Women were expected to marry, have children, support their husbands,
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Speaker 1: and accept limits on their ambitions, while men were expected
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Speaker 1: to become economic providers and household authorities. Steinem challenged both
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Speaker 1: sides of that arrangement. Her argument was not that women
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Speaker 1: should abandon families or that motherhood was undesirable. Instead, she
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Speaker 1: argued that women should not be forced into those roles
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Speaker 1: by law, economic dependence, or social expectations. That distinction remains
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Speaker 1: crucial in understanding why her legacy has generated both admiration
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Speaker 1: and fierce criticism. Her opponents frequently portrayed feminism as an
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Speaker 1: attack on marriage and motherhood, while Steinem and other feminist
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Speaker 1: leaders argued that genuine equality would make those institutions stronger
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Speaker 1: by allowing people to enter them freely rather than from necessity.
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Speaker 1: Her own life became part of that argument. Steinem never
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Speaker 1: had children and spent much of her adult life unmarried,
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Speaker 1: although she eventually married environmental activist David Bale-Lade in life.
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Speaker 1: She repeatedly explained that she did not regret remaining childless
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Speaker 1: and believed that motherhood could be a wonderful choice for
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Speaker 1: women who wanted it. What mattered to her was the
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Speaker 1: word choice. She believed women should be able to determine
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Speaker 1: the structure of their own lives instead of being told
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Speaker 1: that one path was morally superior to all others. That
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Speaker 1: philosophy influenced her work on reproductive rights, workplace equality, and
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Speaker 1: political representation. It also shaped the way she responded to criticism.
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Speaker 1: Steinem became famous for refusing to retreat from controversial positions,
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Speaker 1: even when doing so would have been politically easier. She
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Speaker 1: criticized conservative leaders over abortion and gender roles, supported women
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Speaker 1: who challenged powerful men, and became a prominent advocate for
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Speaker 1: Anita Hill during the confirmation battle involving Clarence Thomas. She
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Speaker 1: supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns and became involved in the
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Speaker 1: Women's March after Donald Trump won the 2016 election. Her
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Speaker 1: opposition to Trump was not merely a reaction to one politician.
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Speaker 1: She saw the political climate around him as part of
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Speaker 1: a larger struggle over gender, power, and equality. Yet Steinem's
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Speaker 1: career also contained disagreements within the progressive movement itself. Her
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Speaker 1: comments during the 2008 Democratic primary about Hillary Clinton and
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Speaker 1: Barack Obama generated significant criticism from African-American commentators who believed
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Speaker 1: she had underestimated the importance of race. Steinem later argued
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Speaker 1: that sexism and racism could not be ranked as if
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Speaker 1: one form of discrimination were universally more important than another.
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Speaker 1: The controversy illustrated something important about her career. She was influential,
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Speaker 1: but she was never beyond criticism. Feminism itself was never
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Speaker 1: a single unified movement. It contained disagreements over race, class, sexuality, economics,
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Speaker 1: political strategy, and the role of men. Steinem attempted to
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Speaker 1: broaden the movement beyond the experiences of relatively privileged white
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Speaker 1: women and became an advocate for a more inclusive understanding
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Speaker 1: of equality. She worked with women from different racial and
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Speaker 1: economic backgrounds and supported causes involving violence against women, civil rights,
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Speaker 1: and political participation. Still, critics continued to argue that the
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Speaker 1: movement did not always represent every woman equally. Those internal
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Speaker 1: debates helped shape feminism as it developed. The movement changed
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Speaker 1: because activists challenged one another as well as the institutions
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Speaker 1: they opposed. Steinem's ability to remain visible through those disagreements
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Speaker 1: helped make her a symbol of continuity. She did not
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Speaker 1: disappear after the major legislative victories of the 1970s. Instead,
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Speaker 1: she continued campaigning for reproductive freedom, equal rights, and women's
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Speaker 1: political participation for decades. That persistence became especially significant after
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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe. The decision demonstrated
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Speaker 1: that rights many Americans considered settled could become politically vulnerable again.
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Speaker 1: For Steinem, that was evidence that social progress could never
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Speaker 1: be treated as permanently secured. Her response reflected the central
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Speaker 1: theme of her life. Rights must be defended repeatedly because
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Speaker 1: political victories can be reversed. The debate over abortion therefore
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Speaker 1: became more than a disagreement about one procedure. For Steinem,
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Speaker 1: it was connected to whether women could control their bodies
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Speaker 1: and make decisions about the direction of their lives. For opponents,
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Speaker 1: restricting abortion represented the protection of unborn life and the
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Speaker 1: restoration of a moral order they believed feminism had disrupted.
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Speaker 1: The most striking measure of Steinem's historical impact may be
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Speaker 1: found in the everyday rights that many Americans now take
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Speaker 1: for granted. When she began speaking publicly about feminism, the
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Speaker 1: legal and economic position of women was dramatically different from
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Speaker 1: what it is today. Women could face restrictions in obtaining
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Speaker 1: credit and discrimination in employment, and serious disadvantages when they
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Speaker 1: became pregnant. Political institutions were overwhelmingly male, and cultural expectations
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Speaker 1: often assumed that a woman's primary responsibility was to her
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Speaker 1: husband and children. The feminist movement challenged that structure from
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Speaker 1: multiple directions. Activists demanded equal employment opportunities and pushed for
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Speaker 1: laws against pregnancy discrimination, fought for access to birth control
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Speaker 1: and abortion, challenged sexual harassment, and encouraged women to seek
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Speaker 1: positions of authority. Some of those campaigns produced legal victories
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Speaker 1: that changed the relationship between women and institutions. Others produced
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Speaker 1: cultural changes that were harder to measure but just as significant.
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Speaker 1: Women increasingly entered professions that had once been dominated by men,
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Speaker 1: pursued higher education, delayed marriage, started businesses, and sought political office.
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Speaker 1: Families changed as women became major contributors to household incomes
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Speaker 1: and as expectations surrounding marriage and parenting evolved. Steinem understood
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Speaker 1: that these changes were connected. A woman who could not
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Speaker 1: control her reproductive life could struggle to maintain a career.
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Speaker 1: A woman who could not obtain credit independently could remain
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Speaker 1: financially dependent. A woman who faced discrimination because she became
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Speaker 1: pregnant could be forced to choose between motherhood and employment.
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Speaker 1: A woman who was excluded from political institutions could have
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Speaker 1: difficulty influencing the laws that governed her life. Feminism therefore
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Speaker 1: sought to change multiple systems simultaneously. The result was not
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Speaker 1: a perfect society, and Steinem herself acknowledged that enormous inequalities remained.
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Speaker 1: Women continued to face wage disparities, sexual harassment, and underrepresentation
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Speaker 1: in corporate and political leadership. But the baseline had shifted.
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Speaker 1: Women were no longer legally expected to accept the same
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Speaker 1: limitations that existed when Steinem entered the movement. The statistics
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Speaker 1: tell part of that story. The share of women participating
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Speaker 1: in the labor force rose dramatically over the decades, and
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Speaker 1: women became a much larger presence in Congress. Those changes
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Speaker 1: represented more than numbers. They altered expectations for young girls
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Speaker 1: who grew up seeing women as doctors, lawyers, executives, legislators, journalists,
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Speaker 1: and business owners. They changed what families believed was possible.
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Speaker 1: They also changed the economy itself. Modern American economic life
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Speaker 1: depends heavily on women's participation in paid employment. making a
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Speaker 1: return to the labor patterns of the 1950s and early
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Speaker 1: 1960s unrealistic even if some political movements advocate a stronger
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Speaker 1: return to traditional family structures. This is one reason the
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Speaker 1: current backlash against feminism is so complicated. Conservatives can criticize
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Speaker 1: feminist ideology while simultaneously accepting many of the legal and
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Speaker 1: economic changes feminism helped create. Even critics of Steinem generally
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Speaker 1: do not argue that women should lose the right to vote.
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Speaker 1: own property, obtain credit, or work outside the home. Instead,
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Speaker 1: the debate has moved toward questions about cultural priorities. Should
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Speaker 1: women be encouraged to marry younger? Should government policy favor
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Speaker 1: households with children? Should society place greater emphasis on motherhood?
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Speaker 1: Should career advancement remain a central measure of success, or
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Speaker 1: should caregiving receive equal status? Those questions are not easily
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Speaker 1: answered by statistics because they involve values as much as economics.
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Speaker 1: Steinem's position was that women should be free to make
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Speaker 1: those decisions individually. Her critics believe that freedom alone does
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Speaker 1: not guarantee a healthy society and that public policy should
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Speaker 1: actively encourage marriage and childbearing. The difference between those views
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Speaker 1: is at the heart of the current cultural conflict. Supporters
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Speaker 1: of traditional family policies argue that declining birth rates and
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Speaker 1: family instability threaten the country's future. Some conservative organizations have
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Speaker 1: proposed financial incentives for younger couples who marry and have children,
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Speaker 1: believing that economic policy can encourage family formation. Feminist organizations
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Speaker 1: respond that families can be strengthened without limiting women's economic independence.
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Speaker 1: They support measures such as paid family leave, affordable child care,
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Speaker 1: and policies that make it easier for parents to raise
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Speaker 1: children without forcing women to abandon careers. This disagreement reveals
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Speaker 1: an unexpected area of common ground. Both sides say they
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Speaker 1: want families to thrive. They simply disagree over how that
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Speaker 1: goal should be achieved. Traditionalists emphasize marriage, motherhood, and gender roles.
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Speaker 1: The rise of the modern backlash against feminism became especially
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Speaker 1: visible after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And
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Speaker 1: Steinem's reaction demonstrated how closely reproductive freedom remained connected to
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Speaker 1: the philosophy that had defined her activism. For decades, Roe
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Speaker 1: had represented a constitutional protection that supporters believed established a
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Speaker 1: minimum level of reproductive autonomy. Its reversal changed that assumption.
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Speaker 1: States were suddenly able to impose severe restrictions or near-total
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Speaker 1: bans on abortion, creating a dramatically different legal landscape across
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Speaker 1: the country. Steinem regarded the decision as evidence that fundamental
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Speaker 1: rights could be weakened even after generations had grown accustomed
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Speaker 1: to them. Her critics viewed the decision from the opposite direction,
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Speaker 1: arguing that the constitutional protection had itself represented an unjust
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Speaker 1: expansion of judicial power and that returning authority to states
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Speaker 1: was a democratic correction. That disagreement became part of a
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Speaker 1: much larger cultural argument. Reproductive policy affects far more than
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Speaker 1: the legal availability of abortion. It raises questions about pregnancy, contraception, childbirth,
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Speaker 1: medical decision-making, parental responsibility, and the relationship between individual liberty
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Speaker 1: and government authority. Steinem placed reproductive choice at the center
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Speaker 1: of feminism because she believed that pregnancy could determine the
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Speaker 1: entire trajectory of a woman's life. If someone could be
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Speaker 1: compelled to continue a pregnancy against her will, she argued,
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Speaker 1: then her ability to exercise equal control over education, employment,
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Speaker 1: and family life was fundamentally limited. Anti-abortion advocates reject that
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Speaker 1: premise because they believe the fetus has moral and legal
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Speaker 1: significance that must be protected regardless of the mother's preferences.
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Speaker 1: The disagreement is therefore not merely between people who support
17:00
Speaker 1: or oppose one political party. It involves competing ideas about rights, responsibility,
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Speaker 1: and the beginning of human life. What changed after Roe
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Speaker 1: was that the political balance shifted substantially toward abortion restrictions
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Speaker 1: in many states. That development energized conservative religious organizations that
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Speaker 1: had spent decades campaigning against abortion. It also energized reproductive
17:24
Speaker 1: rights organizations that saw the decision as a call to
17:27
Speaker 1: rebuild a movement around state-level protections and federal legislation. Steinem's
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Speaker 1: generation had experienced a similar process in reverse. Activists had
17:37
Speaker 1: fought for decades before Roe established constitutional protection. They knew
17:41
Speaker 1: that legal change could take years and that public opinion
17:45
Speaker 1: could evolve unevenly. Her later years, therefore, reflected a sense
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Speaker 1: that the movement had entered another long period of struggle.
17:53
Speaker 1: The idea of a completed feminist revolution became increasingly difficult
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Speaker 1: to defend. Rights had expanded dramatically, but some victories were vulnerable.
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Speaker 1: The Equal Rights Amendment remained unfinished. Reproductive rights were contested
18:07
Speaker 1: and inequalities persisted in employment and political leadership. At the
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Speaker 1: same time, a new conservative cultural movement was arguing that
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Speaker 1: the feminist transformation itself had produced social problems. Some activists
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Speaker 1: blamed feminism for declining marriage rates, falling birth rates, and
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Speaker 1: a culture that they believed treated family life as secondary
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Speaker 1: to professional ambition. Steinem rejected that interpretation. She argued that
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Speaker 1: marriage and motherhood should not be weakened by giving women
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Speaker 1: more choices. Instead, they should become more equal because women
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Speaker 1: could enter them without surrendering their independence. This distinction matters
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Speaker 1: because it exposes a fundamental disagreement over causation. If fewer
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Speaker 1: women marry or have children, Is that evidence that feminism
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Speaker 1: has damaged family life? Or is it evidence that women
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Speaker 1: have gained enough economic and social freedom to make choices
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Speaker 1: previous generations could not make? Conservatives often emphasize the first explanation.
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Speaker 1: Feminists tend to emphasize the second. The reality may contain
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Speaker 1: elements of both, because social changes rarely have a single cause.
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Speaker 1: Economic pressures, housing costs, education, changing attitudes toward relationships— workplace expectations, contraception,
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Speaker 1: religious beliefs, and personal preferences all influence family formation. Assigning
19:32
Speaker 1: responsibility entirely to feminism oversimplifies a complicated demographic transformation. But
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Speaker 1: the political argument remains powerful because family structure has become
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Speaker 1: a major question in contemporary American politics. Conservative policymakers increasingly
19:49
Speaker 1: discuss marriage, and children as national priorities. Progressive advocates respond
19:54
Speaker 1: that families need practical support rather than cultural pressure. Their
19:58
Speaker 1: proposals often include paid leave, childcare assistance, and economic policies
20:04
Speaker 1: intended to make raising children more affordable. Both approaches acknowledge
20:08
Speaker 1: that many Americans find it difficult to combine work and
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Speaker 1: family responsibilities. Steinem's relationship with political power was another defining
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Speaker 1: feature of her career because she understood that cultural change
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Speaker 1: could not survive without political organization. She did not believe
20:25
Speaker 1: that writing essays or giving speeches was enough. Women needed
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Speaker 1: representation inside institutions that created laws, and they needed organizations
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Speaker 1: capable of supporting candidates, campaigns, and policy movements. In 1971,
20:39
Speaker 1: Steinem helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus, an effort
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Speaker 1: designed to encourage women to seek elected office and participate
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Speaker 1: directly in the political process. At the time, the number
20:53
Speaker 1: of women in Congress was extraordinarily small. Today, women occupy
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Speaker 1: more than 10 times as many seats, although they remain
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Speaker 1: less represented than men in many powerful positions. That transformation
21:06
Speaker 1: illustrates the long-term impact of political organizing. Steinem understood that
21:11
Speaker 1: a movement could win public attention and still lose legislative
21:15
Speaker 1: battles if it did not develop institutional power. Her work, therefore,
21:19
Speaker 1: extended into elections, journalism, grassroots organizing, and public advocacy. Ms.
21:26
Speaker 1: Magazine became another important part of that strategy. Co-founded by
21:30
Speaker 1: Steinem and other activists, the publication created a platform where
21:34
Speaker 1: women could discuss politics, sexuality, work, family, and discrimination from
21:40
Speaker 1: a perspective that mainstream media often ignored. Its significance was
21:44
Speaker 1: not simply that it was a magazine aimed at women.
21:47
Speaker 1: It represented an attempt to give women control over the
21:50
Speaker 1: stories being told about their lives. At the time, mainstream
21:54
Speaker 1: publications frequently treated women's issues as lifestyle topics rather than
21:59
Speaker 1: political questions. Steinem and her colleagues rejected that distinction. They
22:04
Speaker 1: argued that decisions about marriage, reproduction, employment, and domestic labor
22:09
Speaker 1: were political because laws and institutions shaped the choices available
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Speaker 1: to individuals. That idea became one of the defining principles
22:17
Speaker 1: of modern feminism. It also changed journalism. women's experiences increasingly
22:23
Speaker 1: became legitimate subjects of investigative reporting, political analysis, and public debate.
22:29
Speaker 1: Steinem's own journalism career had prepared her for this role.
22:33
Speaker 1: Before becoming a full-time activist, she worked as a reporter
22:37
Speaker 1: and became known for exposing subjects that editors sometimes considered
22:42
Speaker 1: inappropriate or unimportant. Her transition into public speaking was not easy.
22:47
Speaker 1: She later acknowledged that she had been afraid of speaking
22:50
Speaker 1: in public and might have preferred to remain a writer.
22:53
Speaker 1: But editors were often reluctant to publish the kinds of
22:56
Speaker 1: feminist stories she wanted to write, so speaking became a necessity.
23:01
Speaker 1: That accident of circumstance became one of the most important
23:04
Speaker 1: features of her career. Steinem developed into a speaker capable
23:08
Speaker 1: of communicating complex political arguments to large audiences and her
23:13
Speaker 1: visibility helped turn feminism into a mainstream national conversation. She
23:17
Speaker 1: also became a symbol of a new kind of feminist
23:20
Speaker 1: public figure. Her appearance challenged stereotypes about activists and her
23:25
Speaker 1: ability to work within popular media helped bring feminist ideas
23:29
Speaker 1: to audiences that might never have attended a political meeting.
23:32
Speaker 1: Critics sometimes argued that her celebrity status simplified the movement
23:37
Speaker 1: or centered too much attention on one person. Supporters countered
23:41
Speaker 1: that visibility was precisely what allowed feminism to reach a
23:45
Speaker 1: national audience. The tension between celebrity and grassroots activism remained
23:50
Speaker 1: throughout her career. Steinem often emphasized collective movements rather than
23:55
Speaker 1: personal leadership, yet her own image became inseparable from the
23:59
Speaker 1: movement's public identity. That created both power and vulnerability. When
24:04
Speaker 1: Steinem spoke, Her words could generate national debate, but criticism
24:09
Speaker 1: directed at her could also be used to criticize feminism
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Speaker 1: as a whole. Her public disagreements became part of the
24:15
Speaker 1: movement's history. Some critics accused her of being too moderate,
24:19
Speaker 1: while others considered her too radical. Some activists criticized her
24:24
Speaker 1: positions on race or political strategy, while conservatives criticized nearly
24:29
Speaker 1: every aspect of her agenda. Her ability to remain central
24:33
Speaker 1: despite those disputes demonstrated her resilience. She did not attempt
24:37
Speaker 1: to satisfy everyone. Instead, she continued advocating for the principles
24:42
Speaker 1: she believed were fundamental. That determination became especially important in
24:47
Speaker 1: her later years. Many public figures eventually step away from
24:51
Speaker 1: activism after decades of work, but Steinem continued speaking about
24:56
Speaker 1: women's rights and reproductive freedom well into her 80s and 90s.
25:00
Speaker 1: Her longevity allowed her to witness changes that earlier activists
25:05
Speaker 1: could only imagine. She saw women become corporate executives, presidential candidates,
25:10
Speaker 1: Supreme Court justices, military leaders, and major political figures. She
25:16
Speaker 1: also saw the country experience renewed arguments over whether those
25:19
Speaker 1: changes had gone too far. Her final years, therefore, provided
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Speaker 1: a unique perspective on historical cycles.