Gloria Steinem has said, "If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?" This thread runs through her life as an activist and change agent, dedicated to fashioning a world that does fit the needs of its people.

Steinem's lifelong career as a writer and journalist began after college. A co-founder of New York magazine in 1968, Steinem was always active in a wide array of political and social causes. She became a major feminist leader in the late 1960s and in 1971 co-founded MS Magazine, where she serves as contributing editor today. In 1971 she was a co-convener of the National Women's Political Caucus and in l972 helped found the MS Foundation for Women, which raises funds to assist underprivileged girls and women. She is a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and her books, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983) and Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem (l992) are best-sellers. Steinem's lifelong activism has inspired women of all ages to fight for their rights, to take risks, and to defend the rights of others. Her writings form a lasting legacy of ideas and personal revelation that continues to inspire and inform.

Memorable Quotes:

"I have met brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility,

with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves

vulnerable that I find moving beyond words."

"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."

"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off."

"The authority of any governing institution must stop at its citizen's skin."

"Power can be taken, but not given.

The process of the taking is empowerment in itself."

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities.

Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

"For women... bras, panties, bathing suits, and other stereotypical gear are visual reminders of a commercial, idealized feminine image that our real and diverse female bodies can't possibly fit. Without these visual references, each individual woman's body demands to be accepted on its own terms. We stop being comparatives. We begin to be unique."

"I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career."

"A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after."

"A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual."

Additional Resources:
Heilbrun, Carolyn G. The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

Stern, Sydney Ladensohn. Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Pub. Group, 1997.

Outrageous Acts and Everday Rebellions. New York: New American Library, 1983.

Marilyn: Norma Jean. New York: H. Holt, 1986.

Revolution From Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., c1992.

Moving Beyond Words. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.