Meghan, Oprah and Billie Jean King praise Gloria Steinem after death at 92
The Duchess of Sussex, TV host Oprah Winfrey and US tennis star Billie Jean King are among the stars who have paid tribute to US journalist and feminist activist Gloria Steinem following her death at the age of 92.
Steinem, who dedicated her life to campaigning on issues including equal pay and reproductive rights, was one of the trailblazers behind the US feminist movement.
She died “peacefully” on Wednesday at her home in New York City surrounded by loved ones.
Tributes have poured in for Steinem from around the world and across industries including from Girls creator Lena Dunham, Mulholland Drive actress Naomi Watts, Hollywood star Julianne Moore and Practical Magic actress Sandra Bullock.
Meghan described Steinem as her “friend and mentor” in a post on Instagram.
She said: “Publicly, we did interviews together, called young voters to encourage them to have their voices heard, attended award ceremonies, and brainstormed how to help this beautiful yet complicated world to become more equitable.
“But privately, she was even better than you would imagine – spending Thanksgiving with our family, introducing me to one of my best friends (forever the champion of female friendship), loving our children with her whole heart, counseling me during hard times, and giving extraordinary advice and perspective with a cup of tea and an unrivaled cheekiness and wit.”
Former tennis champion King, who relentlessly challenged sexism in the sport and famously claimed victory over former number one Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes match, described Steinem as a “true giant and a dynamic voice”.
She said: “Gloria called herself ‘an entrepreneur of social change’. And she was.
“She devoted her life to the pursuit of equality and political change, working tirelessly for over 70 years to ensure each generation built upon the work of the previous one.
“We are forever grateful for her many accomplishments. She lit a torch many years ago. It is now our responsibility to keep it lifted into the future. May she rest in power.”
Dunham shared a photograph of the pair together on Instagram and said: “Despite your towering stature, your thousands of obligations, the urgency of your mission- you gave so many women the chance to know you. You weren’t just generous with your life force, your vision or your intellect.
“You worked so hard for us. You gave so much. And your memory will continue to do overtime to remind us what is possible when we are, as the bracelet you once gave me said, ‘linked not ranked’.”
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she was “heartsick” to learn of Steinem’s death.
She told CBS Mornings: “Gloria was at heart an optimist. Her activism was rooted in optimism, and that’s a moral choice. And she made it every day.
“She was one of the architects of the entire structure of women’s equality. Tearing down those obstacles to young women being able to participate where their talents and hard work took them.”
News of Steinem’s death was announced on Thursday morning in a statement shared on her Instagram account.
Practical Magic actress Bullock posted a black and white photograph of Steinem on her Instagram story and said: “With her bare hands and force of will, she paved the roads that millions of us are able to walk on.”
Hollywood actress Moore also paid tribute and said the time she spent studying Steinem in order to portray her in the 2020 biopic The Glorias was “one of the most edifying of my life”.
She said: “Her honesty, her tolerance, her patience, and her insistence on humanism and inclusion as she moved through the world offers us all a moral roadmap. Thank you for all you gave us, Gloria.
“We were so lucky.”
American singer-songwriter Patti Smith said: “This is the greatest Gloria. All are grateful for her revolutionary spirit; a lifetime of service.”
US TV presenter Oprah Winfrey praised Steinem for leaving us with “more freedom than she inherited”.
She said: “We as women owe her so much. She challenged a culture that often told us who we could be, what we could do, and how much space we were allowed to take up — and then spent her life making that space wider for all of us.
“And although she was a defining leader of the women’s movement and became an icon, she never wanted the movement to be about her. She understood that real change happens when one woman finds her voice and then uses it to help another woman find hers.
“She leaves us with more freedom than she inherited and with the responsibility to keep widening that freedom for the women and girls who come next.
“What a life. What a legacy. What a difference she made.”
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem began her career as a freelance journalist in New York City and first gained prominence in 1963 after going undercover as a Playboy Bunny.
The expose for Show magazine revealed the working conditions at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club and the sexist and underpaid life of the bunnies/waitresses.
Despite making a name for herself, Steinem was still not taken seriously by the heavily male-dominated newsroom.
She went on to write as a columnist for New York magazine where she reported on political campaigns and progressive social issues including the women’s liberation movement.
A crucial moment in her advocacy came in 1969 when she spoke out at an awareness rally about her own experience of having an abortion when she was 22 years old.
She quickly became the face of the women’s liberation movement and second-wave feminism – advocating for reproductive rights among many other causes throughout the 60s and 70s.
Steinem also founded the Women’s Action Alliance alongside Brenda Feigen and Dorothy Pitman-Hughes in 1971, a US organisation which supported grassroots activism to fight against sex discrimination.
In 1972, she co-founded Ms magazine – the first magazine owned, run and written by women.
The groundbreaking magazine published stories that broke away from the mainstream tales concerned with homemaking, parenting or beauty.
Steinem helped co-found the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) in 1971, a multi-partisan grassroots organisation dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the political process at a national and state level.
She also played an influential role in the movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972 which prohibited sex discrimination.
Steinem was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour, in 2013 by then US president Barack Obama.
Published: by Radio NewsHub