A Chronology of Gloria Steinem’s Life — To Date!
1864 Gloria’s paternal grandmother, Pauline (Perlmutter) Steinem, is born in Poland. She later emigrates to the United States and becomes the chairwoman of the educational committee of the Women’s Suffrage Association, is named a delegate of the 1908 International Council of women, and is the first women elected to the Toledo, Ohio Board of Education
1902 Gloria’s mother Ruth (Nunerville) Steinem, a journalist, is the first woman named the Sunday editor of The Toledo Blade
1934 Gloria Marie Steinem is born in Toledo, Ohio to Leo and Ruth Steinem
1935 – 45 Travels nationwide with parents following her father’s career as a traveling salesman
1946 Gloria attends traditional schooling for the first time
1947 Gloria’s parents’ separate. Her mother suffers a ”nervous breakdown,” and Gloria cares for her ailing mother who is heavily medicated with the side effects of dilutions, hallucinations, and periods of violence
1956 Gloria graduates Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in Government
Has a secret abortion in London at the age of 22 and breaks an unwanted engagement; she would later speak publically about her abortion to assert the importance of “reproductive freedom” for women
1956 – 58 In India as a Chester Bowles Fellow; she briefly works as a law clerk to Mehr Chand Mahajan, then Chief Justice of India
Moves to New York City and establishes herself as an independent writer, working for Help! Magazine
1962 Clay Felker, editor of Esquire magazine, gives her first “serious” freelance assignment on the subject of contraception and the ways women are forced to choose between a career or marriage and a family
1963 Gloria writes “A Bunny’s Tale,” an undercover expose on the Playboy Club, which exposes the poor pay and working conditions for women there; it brings her nationwide notoriety
1968 Named a founding editor of New York magazine and writes the column “The City Politic” for the magazine
Becomes involved in the fight against the Vietnam War
1969 Attends her first meeting held by a women’s movement group addressing abortion; she is moved to begin writing and speaking out about feminism
Publishes the article “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation” for New York; it brings her national fame as a feminist leader
Travels nationwide organizing women’s movement events, freelance writing, and speaking on college campuses at engagements with Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Flo Kennedy
Testifies about the Equal Rights Amendment before the United States Senate
1971 Co-founds Ms., a magazine about second wave feminist issues. Founding editors include Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock. Ms. is the first magazine created and operated entirely by women; it notably sells out all copies within the first eight days of its initial independent publication in January 1972
Co-founds National Women’s Political Caucus with Betty Freidan, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hammer, Bella Abzug, and Mildred Jeffrey; the NWPC was created to increase “women’s participation in all areas of political and public life”
1973 Co-founds the Ms. Foundation for women with Marlo Thomas and Letty Cottin Pogrebin
1977 – 79 Works with Bella Abzug to establish the Houston Women’s Conference: The first (and only) federally-funded conferences for women, organized to create recommendations for a plan on achieving gender equality in the US
1983 Gloria’s collection of autobiographical essays Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions is published
1984 Gloria’s mother dies
Gloria is arrested, along with several members of congress, while protesting apartheid outside the South African embassy in New York City
1986 Diagnosed with breast cancer; successful treatment has allowed her to count herself among the survivors of the disease
1992 Gloria’s book Revolution from Within: A Book of Self Esteem is published
Co-founded the nonprofit Choice USA, an organization aimed to support young people lobbying for reproductive rights
1993 Steinem inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame
Ms. Foundation creates “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” (which later becomes “Take a Child to Work Day”)
Gloria is the executive producer for Better Off Dead, a Lifetime Cable TV network movie created to explore the issues of abortion, the death penalty, and race relations
Co-produces the Emmy Award winning HBO documentary Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories, which probes the subject of child abuse
1994 Steinem’s collection Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender is published
1996 Women and AIDS Fund is created by Gloria with the Ms. Foundation
2000 At age 66, she marries businessman and animal activist David Bale, despite a long-term opposition to marriage. The wedding is performed by the husband of Gloria’s friend and mentor Wilma Mankiller, the first contemporary female Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation
2003 David Bale dies of brain lymphoma
2005 Works with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan to create the Women’s Media Center, a nonprofit organization with a mission to raise the visibility, viability and decision-making power of women and girls in media
2006 Steinem’s book Doing Sixty and Seventy, which discusses issues of aging, is published
2010 The documentary Gloria: In Her Own Words airs on HBO
2013 Steinem is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama
2015 Gloria’s memoir My Life on the Road is published
She becomes the honorary co-chairwoman for the Women’s Walk for Peace in South Korea
2016 The VICELAND network premieres WOMAN with Gloria Steinem; the show, created by a team of female journalists, examines ”how violence against women drives global instability”
2018 The documentary play Gloria: A Life, written by Emily Mann and directed by Diane Paulus, premieres off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre in New York City
The Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey is established; public intellectual Naomi Klein is appointed as the inaugural holder of the Chair
2019 Gloria: A Life is remounted for performance at McCarter Theatre Center in
2020 Princeton, New Jersey and American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Gloria serves as the honorary co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America and continues to travel and work internationally as an organizer and lecturer on the issues of equality
