Global Feminists Salute Gloria Steinem's 60-Year Legacy After Her Death

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 9

Writers, activists and political figures across the US, Europe, Australia and the Middle East paid tribute to Gloria Steinem, casting her death as a global feminist loss and her legacy as a call to keep organizing.
Ms magazine and Steinem’s journalism anchored many reflections: contributors said she helped turn a movement once concentrated in coastal cities and campuses into a national force, while linking media work to activism.
Several tributes stressed that her feminism reached across borders and movements, citing ties with Black women leaders, support for Angela Davis in 1971, and efforts to connect local, national and international struggles.
Others paired praise with limits in her record, noting her later acknowledgment of minimizing Monica Lewinsky’s allegations and arguing her career showed both the power and constraints of representation-focused feminism.
The broadest theme was continuity: admirers said Steinem’s influence stretched across generations—from grandmothers to younger activists—and that today’s backlash on abortion, violence and equality underscored the unfinished fight she helped define.