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Sisterhood Was Gloria Steinem’s Guiding Principle

Second-wave feminism has an undeserved reputation for being dour, man-hating, racist. Gloria was the antidote: She was witty, fun-loving, and glamorous.

Gloria Steinem in San Francisco in November 1977.

It is hard to imagine the world without Gloria Steinem, who died on September 2 at the age of 92. For over half a century, she defined American feminism, much as many feminists, including herself, wished the media didn’t make one woman with long hair and aviator glasses the public face of a movement of millions. She was adored, attacked, and also envied, most famously by Betty Friedan, who accused her of diluting the movement’s focus and seeking celebrity. (Seeking celebrity? As we would say now, you say that like it’s a bad thing.) As Rebecca Traister says, she was the great popularizer. And lord knows, feminism needs to be popular.

The second wave gets a bad rap these days—dour, puritanical, essentialist, man-hating, racist—much of it undeserved. Gloria was the antidote: She was witty, fun-loving, free-spirited, warm, sexy, glamorous, and, of course, beautiful. She lived a big life—she wrote 11 books and spent years on the road as an “itinerant organizer”—and she lived it on her own terms.

Did she say some foolish things, things that haven’t aged well? Of course. Anyone who lives as much in the public eye as Gloria did is bound to misspeak unless they are a robot or a Trappist monk. The day her obituary went up at The New York Times I got a call from a reporter who was writing about Gloria’s famous gaffe on Real Time with Bill Maher in 2016. Young women, said this strong Hillary supporter, were for Bernie Sanders because “that’s where the boys are.” (Trust the media to seize on a rare sexist remark from a feminist while........

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