Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem at the Ms. Foundation for Women's 23rd annual Gloria Awards, which were named for her, on May 19, 2011.
Born	Gloria Marie Steinem (1934-03-25) March 25, 1934 (age 82) Toledo, Ohio, United States
Residence	New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Waite High School
Alma mater	Smith College
Occupation	Writer and journalist for Ms. and New York magazines
Home town	Toledo, Ohio
Movement	Feminism
Board member of	Women's Media Center
Spouse(s)	David Bale (m. 2000; his death 2003)
Family	Christian Bale (stepson)
Website	gloriasteinem.com

Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist, who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and a founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation", which brought her to national fame as a feminist leader.

In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that works "to make women visible and powerful in the media".

Steinem currently travels internationally as an organizer and lecturer, and is a media spokeswoman on issues of equality.

Steinem was born on March 25, 1934 in Toledo, Ohio, the daughter of Ruth (née Nuneviller) and Leo Steinem. Her mother was a Presbyterian of mostly German (including Prussian), and some Scottish, descent. Her father was Jewish, the son of immigrants from Württemberg, Germany and Radziejów, Poland. Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was chairwoman of the educational committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association, a delegate to the 1908 International Council of Women, and the first woman to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education, as well as a leader in the movement for vocational education. Pauline also rescued many members of her family from the Holocaust.

The Steinems lived and traveled about in the trailer from which Leo carried out his trade as a traveling antiques dealer. Before Steinem was born, her mother Ruth, then aged 34, had a "nervous breakdown" which left her an invalid, trapped in delusional fantasies that occasionally turned violent. She changed "from an energetic, fun-loving, book-loving" woman into "someone who was afraid to be alone, who could not hang on to reality long enough to hold a job, and who could rarely concentrate enough to read a book." Ruth spent long periods in and out of sanatoriums for the mentally ill. Steinem was ten years old when her parents finally separated in 1944. Her father went to California to find work, while she and her mother continued to live together in Toledo.