Gloria Steinem: Feminist Role Model

Gloria Steinem immediately stuck out to me because of her Ohio origin. I love a good hometown hero, myself, and she is the perfect woman to call a hero. I first heard the name “Gloria Steinem” when I was in a musical production of Legally Blonde the Musical; Steinem is, essentially, one of the lead characters’ role models, which is understandable considering all of the incredible work that she has done. Steinem is a writer, lecturer, female organizer, and activist (About). She is basically this incredible, feminist super-hero who travels this and other countries to help organize and lecture about issues around feminism, race and sex caste systems, gender roles, child abuse and non-violent conflict resolution among other important topics.

At first, I just thought that Gloria Steinem was our generation’s feminist mother Theresa. That all her activism and

Some of the community around her didn’t support her feminist beliefs and her desire to advocate for women, and she also received criticism by some of the feminist community, including the Redstockings, for her glamorous image and her association with the CIA-backed Independent Research Service (History.com Staff). Gloria kept fighting, however, and continued to do amazing things despite the criticism she faced on more than a few fronts. Steinem helped found the Women’s Action Alliance, a first-of-its-kind national information center that specializes in non-biased (i.e. nonsexist, multiracial) children’s education. This is so incredibly important as education, equality and feminism are all issues I hold close to my heart. Providing an environment free of bias for children to learn is something that we need more of. Steinem also helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus. This is a group that continues in its efforts to “...advance the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed office at a national and state