Gloria Steinem was born on March 25, 1934 in Toledo, Ohio, where she lived with her parents. When she was 11, her parents divorced an she had to take care of her mentally ill mother alone. She went to Smith College, where she studied government, a subject that not many women would study at that time.
Steinem did not want to follow the common path for women, which was marriage and motherhood. After graduating from college, she received a fellowship to study in India. She started her career as a freelance writer. In 1963, she wrote a famous article called "A Bunny's Tale" for the Show magazine about the Playboy Club, which became very famous. She went undercover as a waitress. Her article exposed that the waitresses were overworked and underpaid.
She struggled with her career, because she found that it was hard to be assigned serious political news stories because of sex, so she created her own job by helping to create New York magazine. She became engaged in the women's movement and reported about an abortion hearing. She attended rallies, protests, and sit-ins. She gave lectures and became a public image for the women's movement.
Along with other feminists, she formed the National Women's Political Caucus, with supported the changes in the Equal Rights Amendment and other issues. Steinem since co-founded a number of organizations that focus on human rights issues. She also authored four books. Today, she is still working to support equality.
Source:
http://www.biography.com/people/gloria-steinem-9493491
https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/gloria-steinem/
Interesting post about Gloria Steinem! After hearing about her in class, I was really impressed and inspired by her work. She broke so many barriers and help exposed the bad treatment of women of the time and to highlight the inequality between men and women of the time. She really helped the Women's Liberation Movement by drawing attention to and showing evidence of the unfair treatment of women. It would be interesting to actually read the article she went undercover for. Do you think the women working there fight against the sexism they were being subjected to, or did they just accept it as part of society? To read the article, go to: http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/sites/dlib.nyu.edu.undercover/files/documents/uploads/editors/Show-A%20Bunny%27s%20Tale-Part%20One-May%201963.pdf
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read. She did so many impressive things, but the most amazing part is that at each step in her career she chose a path or accomplished something that was unusual or frowned upon for women at that time. Her degree, fellowship, "A Bunny's Tale," creation of New York Magazine, and the organizations she founded and was a part of all broke barriers. She was amazingly accomplished.
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