Gloria Steinem, celebrated feminist, journalist and activist, dies, aged 92

American journalist and feminist activist Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92, a post on her official Instagram account announced on Thursday.

“Yesterday, Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her,” the caption began.

“Gloria’s near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end.

“Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humour.

“She spent her recent years doing the two things she loved most: being in community with others and writing. She has welcomed hundreds of guests into her living room for Talking Circles, a tradition she insisted will continue long after she is no longer with us.

“As Gloria wrote in her forthcoming book, An Unexpected Life, ‘I have now lived for more than 50 years in this brownstone, in rooms that have witnessed lives before mine, and will know others after I am gone’.

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“This book, along with her commitment to her home becoming a centre for social justice movements, are among the many gifts Gloria has given the world with the hope they have ripple effects for generations to come.

“Gloria often quoted the adage: ‘The flap of a butterfly’s wing can change the weather hundreds of miles away’.

“Gloria loved the tradition of lighting signal fires on hills to light the way to the other side of the mountain. Lighting your own candle for Gloria makes you part of this global and celestial community circle.”

The statement requested any fans or followers of Steinem who wish to honour her with a gift make a donation to her charity in lieu of flowers.

Steinem became a feminist icon and publishing force as the co-founder of Ms Magazine in the 1970s and a leading voice in the US women’s movement.

Her involvement in fight for women’s equal legal rights in the US, with the Equal Rights Amendment, was captured in the drama miniseries Mrs America, where Steinem was played by Australian actress Rose Byrne.

Over the years, the journalist continued to interview some of the world’s biggest names of women in positions of power and hosted the occasional podcast.

In more recent years, her interviews have included Jacinda Arden, Julia Gillard and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

But Steinem also spent much of her life as an advocate on the road, speaking at college campuses and community centres, at rallies and marches.

‘The beginning of activism for me’

She began her career as a journalist, notably one who reported, in 1963, on degrading conditions in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire, an undercover assignment she came to later regret.

She credits a meeting six years later, where women spoke out boldly in favour of abortion rights, with changing her career path.

“That speak-out was the beginning of activism for me,” Steinem, who had undergone a secret illegal abortion herself at age 22, told the AP in an email in 2022, reflecting on the reversal of Roe v Wade.

“Either our control over our own bodies is equal, regardless of sex or race, or we’re not living in a democracy.”

Though she soon became a known activist, those who watched Steinem denounce discrimination for so many years likely never suspected that she’d had to overcome a deep fear of public speaking. She would have simply stuck to writing, she said, if only editors at the time had been willing to let her write about the women’s movement.

Time hardly slowed Steinem down; well into her 80s she was travelling the globe and speaking out on issues of importance to her. These included everything from genital mutilation to Korean reconciliation, but it was equality for women that took precedence.

“Being a feminist means that you see the world as whole instead of half,” she once said. “It shouldn’t need a name, and one day it won’t.”

As the years went on, Steinem’s visibility endured. At 83, she sat in the front row of her first fashion show, guest of designer Prabal Gurung.

A few days after her 85th birthday, she was leading a women’s “talking circle” at an off-Broadway play celebrating her life, where one by one, women in the audience — many fighting tears — rose to thank her and tell their own stories of discrimination.

In 2020, her life was the subject of a feature film, The Glorias, A Life on The Road, based on her 2015 memoir and starring Julianne Moore.

And at 91, she collaborated on a picture book with Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee aimed at inspiring young people to change the world. Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All was published in February 2026.

‘My week with Gloria changed me’

Canadian-Australian author Tara Moss recollected her first meeting with Steinem in a Melbourne hotel before interviewing her on stage in May 2016.

“It is no small thing to meet one of your heroines,” Moss wrote in a lengthy social media tribute.

"Minutes later she breezed into the room like the sun, with enough energy for the both of us despite being twice my age and having just stepped off an international flight. She was 82.

"I was blown away by her energy and presence … she had a generosity of spirit and a presence about her that radiated warmth and intelligence. I felt charged instantly, and reassured."

Moss added that she and Steinem got on so well both on-stage and off, they "spent a lot of that week in each other’s company while she was in Australia".

"My week with Gloria changed me. I’ll never forget it," she said.

Actress Amy Schumer also praised Steinem’s energy in a social media tribute.

“Walked the walk to her last day,” she wrote.

“Love to the coven of women who cared for her.”

- Reported with Associated Press.