Gloria Steinam

American Feminist Journalist

With today being my birthday and the fact that I’m a feminist and strongly believe in ‘girl power’, I decided to do the next post about a strong woman in history today, as these woman inspire me. According to National Geographic, Gloria Steinam became the ‘world’s most famous feminist’. I decided to add her to my list of strong women of history because she did a lot for women’s rights and the sad part is that I didn’t even know about her until I watched the movie ‘The Glorias’ that was released in November 2020. A woman that had such an effect on women’s rights and caused such a change in history should really be celebrated by women around the world much more than what she currently is.

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
– Gloria Steinam

Many people have gotten the facts about Gloria’s life incorrect. Some said that she was a CIA Operative, that she was a Playboy bunny and that she married a famous actor’s father…forgetting that said father was a man on his own and did not need to be defined by his famous son. Trust Gloria to marry a man that was an activist himself, an animal rights activist and was successful as an entrepreneur. They must have been a power couple of note and I’m sure you would have felt it emanating from them if you happened to be in their presence.

I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.
– Gloria Steinam

Gloria was not a CIA agent. The reason for the confusion is that she attended two Soviet-backed youth festivals in the 1960s and her travel was financed by a foundation that is subsidized by the agency. She was also not a playboy bunny and you can see this in the movie detailing part of her life. She dressed as a bunny for 10 days to do an exposé piece on being a bunny.

Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry.
– Gloria Steinam

David Bale was the only man that she ever married and he must have had a strong personality to be able to keep up with such a strong woman that had exceptionally high expectations when it came to how women should be treated. It was a very sad thing that he passed away and she was once again left alone. Although, she was never truly alone. She had the love and admiration of many women around the world, as well as the women that she worked with. This includes Dorothy Pitman Hughes whom with Gloria, was the co-founder of Ms. Magazine.

I can imagine that Gloria, Dorothy and the other strong women that supported her were probably a thorn in the side of many closed-minded men around the world but a hero to the open-minded women around the world. I would love to meet her, it must be such an awe-inspiring experience. You can read the full story about Gloria’s life and what she did in her book ‘My Life on the Road’ written by Gloria herself.

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
– Gloria Steinam

Gloria is 86 years old this year and she is still going strong doing fundraising and lecturing among other things. How amazing is that? She was born in Toledo, Ohio, on March 25, 1934, during the height of the Depression. Her father is Leo and her mother’s name is Ruth. They each had problems of their own which you also get to see in the movie and can read about in her book.

From a young age, Gloria started noticing anti-women bias happening in many places. When she started working as a journalist, she even found it there. After she had, had enough she resigned and decided to stand up for women’s rights. That was the beginning of her life of activism. She has had a long life of fighting for women’s rights and as I said earlier, she should be revered for her role in many of the rights that women enjoy today.

We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.
– Gloria Steinam

A lot of this information was taken from an article on National Geographic by Karen Karbo which is titled ‘In Praise of Difficult Women’. Karen also wrote a book with the same title. I think that you would really enjoy reading it and you can click on the title to head on over to go and read her article. All the photos are taken from Gloria Steinam’s website which you can go to here. The main photo used in graphic is from the National Geographic article by Karen Karbo.

The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
– Gloria Steinam

I for one would like to thank Gloria Steinam and all the ladies that assisted her for their work in fighting for women’s rights. I salute you ladies, you are my heroes!

That’s it from me for now…

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