Immediately after journalist and activist Gloria Steinem’s death was announced Thursday morning, heartfelt condolences poured in from leaders far and wide, including Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Spanx founder Sarah Blakely.
Steinem, who has died at the age of 92, rose to fame as a journalist in the 1960s and became a symbol of second-wave feminism through her activism. She wrote essays, gave speeches, led protests, and helped raise money for causes that directly affected women. Since the announcement, many prominent women have noted how Steinem’s writing, advocacy, and even wardrobe boldness have influenced their careers, personal lives, and the trajectory of working women across generations.
“We all empathized with her for different reasons,” says friend Lynn Povich. She is a fellow journalist and author of the 2012 book Good Girls Rebellion: How Newsweek Women Sue Their Bosses and Changed Their Workplaces. “She was a writer. She was young. When feminists were being told that they were sexless, she downplayed it, but she was very beautiful. She was really smart. She was very smart, and most of all, she was funny. At a time when we were being told that we were humorless, she had a really great sense of humor.”
In addition to her journalistic work, from going undercover as the Playboy Bunny to documenting sexism in the workplace to co-founding the feminist publication Ms. Magazine, Steinem was active in politics, helping to launch the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971 to increase women’s representation in Washington, DC. Her work connected gender inequality with race, poverty and violence, and some feminist experts say it played a role in establishing the framework of modern feminism.
Despite her influence, Steinem never wanted to stand out, “even as a star,” Povich says.
In recent years, Steinem continued to actively advocate for women’s rights, autonomy, and representation. According to the 2026 Census, women still earn 83 cents for every dollar earned by men in the same role. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion in the United States, was overturned in 2022.
“I want women and men and everyone to be able to do whatever they want,” Steinem said at the New York-based leadership summit Global Citizen Now in 2022. “Change is like a tree. Instead of growing from the top to the bottom, it grows from the bottom to the top.”
Her influence on women in leadership roles has long been considered a prominent part of her legacy. Here’s a look at what some of them say they learned from Steinem and how those lessons changed the trajectory of their lives.
“She listened. She brought people together.”
Throughout her career, Steinem traveled extensively to speak with and learn from women facing a variety of challenges across the United States. As she got older, she stopped flying jets and began regularly hosting women of all ages and backgrounds at her brownstone New York City home.
Rachel Hruska McPherson, co-founder of retail brand Lingua Franca and social news site Guest of a Guest, said she attended two of Steinem’s rallies. One was aimed at female entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s, and the other was aimed at women over 50. “I never felt like an outsider,” Hruska-McPherson says, even though she doesn’t technically fit into either age group.
“She was incredibly generous, both in literally opening up her living room and her home, and in terms of joining in the conversation,” Hruska McPherson says. “She listened. She brought people together. And she always seemed to bring back, ‘Okay, what can I actually do? Who do I know? Who do I call? What happens from here?'”
[Steinem]always seemed to bring it back to, “OK, what can we actually do?” Who do we know? Who should we call? What happens from here?
Rachel Hruska McPherson
When Hruska McPherson opened Lingua Franca’s headquarters, she did it in a New York City townhouse. “We wanted to open our own doors and have a place where women could gather regularly,” she says.
Emily Hikade, founder of the luxury pajama brand Petit Plume, also attended sessions at Steinem’s home. Hikade says she left the meeting impressed by Steinem’s ability to listen, encourage and make people feel like their voices matter, and that lasting change is possible.
“There’s still a lot of work to do. Women receive only a fraction of venture funding and are vastly underrepresented in leadership,” Hikade said, adding that she now feels a responsibility to carry on Steinem’s legacy. “For me, that means mentoring and introducing women, creating opportunities within the company, investing directly in women-owned businesses, and investing in funds that support women entrepreneurs.”
“She changed what we believed it was okay to talk about.”
Essays like “If Men Could Menstruate” and Steinem’s candor about her own abortion experience helped make topics like sexual harassment and body politics less of a social taboo, says Tamsen Fadal, journalist and author of the 2025 book “How to Menopause: Take Control of Your Health, Take Back Your Life, and Be Better Than Before.”
“Gloria understood that movements begin by saying out loud what women were expected to endure in silence,” Fadal said, adding, “That belief is at the heart of my own work… She didn’t just open doors for women. She changed what we believed was okay to talk about once we got through it.”
Steinem’s practice spanned more than half a century, in part because of how she sought to connect with and understand other people’s experiences. One of the things that attracted multiple generations of women to her was her ability to listen and respond intently, Povich said.
“She was always talking to women, wanting to know what their problems were and trying to help them. She just had a huge amount of energy and interest… She never stopped working, she never stopped talking, she never stopped writing,” Povich says. “She was always on point and always right about what was going on. I never found a fake note on Gloria.”
