Gloria Steinem to Speak at Boston Speakers Series

Ms. Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, courageous leader, and a pillar of the feminist movement.

Gloria Steinem inspired millions of girls and women to engage in self-examination and challenge the ways in which gender, sexuality, race, and economic status shaped their lives in contemporary society. Writer, speaker, activist, Ms. Steinem founded Ms. magazine in 1972. Expected by the mainstream media to crash and burn with its first issue, Ms. magazine, instead, thrived.

Both an outgrowth and a catalyst of the intensity of the women’s movement, Ms. brought articles on the realities of historical gender-based inequities to public readership with well-researched reporting on the social, political, cultural, and economic realities for girls and women locally, nationally, and globally.

And continues to do so today.

A journalist upon graduation from Smith College, Steinem found herself assigned to cover traditional gendered topics of the time. While these articles offered her paid assignments, what she was most interested in pursuing were the politics of the day. Having gained some degree of attention with her month-long stint as a playboy bunny, resulting in her article A Bunny’s Tale, Steinem reported on the difficult and harassment-filled work conditions of the Playboy enterprise. Soon, Steinem was writing about other critical women’s issues including childcare and abortion, with her own political feminist consciousness pulled into awakening during the abortion hearings of 1971. Her own awakening resulted in becoming an activist and a leader of the second wave of the US feminist movement. With the launch of Ms., her political persona and activist interests intersected as she and her staff delivered important articles grounded in the central principal of feminist ideology while promoting “a revolution, not a reform.” Articles called to attention the lack of affordable child care, a woman’s right to bodily control and reproductive freedom, safe abortion, elimination of gender and sex-based discrimination, and the realities of women’s experiences of sexual harassment and violence. Ms. informed readers of the dire need to dismantle patriarchy and misogyny, while seeking to change the material conditions of women’s lives.

With her numerous best-selling books including Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983) and Revolution from Within (1992), Steinem’s authentic voice and a lifetime of feminist leadership went far beyond Ms. magazine and into the street as she led marches and public debates across the country in countless public forums. In partnership with other forerunners of the second wave of the feminist movement, Steinem energized millions.

My own connection to Steinem’s influence can be traced to my adolescence when I received my first copy of Ms. as a gift from my own mother. Ms. allowed my adolescent-self access to topics that had previously left me feeling alone in my own individual experience. Reading the pages of Ms., however, helped me to understand that my own individual experiences were shared by countless other women both locally and globally, shaped by patriarchal structures and norms that required challenge and disruption. Over 30 years later, I now integrate Ms. magazine into my own women’s studies classroom and invite my students to engage both personally and politically with the critical issues represented in the pages of this beautiful publication. The words today are more relevant than ever.

Steinem’s work has been recognized by numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Ceres Medal and Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, National Gay Rights Advocates Award, and Simmons University’s Doctorate of Human Justice. Her life of authentic leadership has inspired a generation of feminist consciousness and activism. As a thought leader she has stimulated rigorous debate on the myriad ways gender and racial equality are human rights. Nearly 50 years after the initial publication of Ms., we need many inspiring leaders who can clearly and powerfully articulate a feminist agenda as we continue to confront hateful misogynistic discourse in the public sphere. Gender equality in the workplace, full representation of women in all levels of political life, LGBTQ rights, marriage equality, safe and legal abortion, work environments free of sexual harassment, and the elimination of sexual violence are realities we must continue to uphold and strenuously work toward. Our current political moment requires that we learn from Steinem and other feminist forerunners and continue to fight for gender and race-based equality until we no longer have to.

Gloria Steinem’s life as a prolific author, journalist, and thought leader has provided solid ground for the continued activism that is just as vital today as it was in the 1970s.