We’ve lost an incredible force in the movement for women’s equality today with Gloria Steinem’s passing at age 92. Gloria was the picture of fierce advocacy, forging a path alongside other powerful women to push our society toward a new era, long overdue.
From reproductive freedom, to equal legal protections and casting off gender stereotypes, in her writing and activism, Gloria boldly fought for the many lives she knew women could lead. She visioned far beyond the prevailing picture of 1960s domesticity and submission that the law and our culture attempted to hold us to. The system as designed did not fit, so she imagined something that sang more loudly of freedom.
We at the Boston Women’s Fund feel a particular kinship with Gloria, as she co-founded the nation’s oldest women’s fund, the Ms. Foundation, in New York, in 1973. Eleven years later, BWF’s founding in 1984 drew much inspiration from the liberation work of our peers, including Gloria and the Ms. Foundation.
In the early 1990s, the Ms. Foundation held a fundraising event in solidarity with the Boston Women’s Fund. And in 1998, we honored Gloria with an award at our “Take a Stand” event, alongside Angela Davis and Wilma Mankiller.
Gloria shared that she learned about feminism “disproportionately from Black women.” She named Black women leaders like Fannie Lou Hamer as prominent influences in her work and cited Fannie’s lived experience in her push against racist reproductive practices. She was a supporter and delegate for Shirley Chisholm’s run to become the first Black woman president. She was inspired by writers Alice Walker and Maya Angelou.
We are living in an era where some of the gains of the movement Gloria helped drive have been shaken. In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturning, reproductive justice is still an urgent, ongoing battle, and despite the Equal Rights Amendment, a wage gap persists.
However, Gloria has also left us with something that will endure throughout the ages: a storied reminder that radical hope can forge a more liberated future. Gloria’s collaborative spirit of organizing across identity lines, and her insistence on a vision of a more equitable future that the mainstream had yet to see, are elements of her legacy that will stay with us in our journey toward liberation. Boston Women’s Fund boldly continues to fight for the world that Gloria believed could come to pass, one centered on justice, care, opportunity, and freedom.
