Gloria Steinem died at her home in New York City on September 2, 2026. She was ninety-two.
I want to acknowledge her passing because I loved her and I love what she did for us. I am part of the first generation of women who truly got to live inside what Gloria Steinem, and the women who came before and beside her, fought to make possible.
Gen X women, born between 1965 and 1980, are among the first to receive the fruit of those seeds.
I was born in 1978. I grew up in a world where I could imagine a life that was not predetermined for me. I was watching the foundation for it being laid all around me, in both small and profound ways. I could live alone. I could choose not to marry. I could choose not to have children. I could pursue a career, leave it, create another one, or step outside the conventional definition of success and define my own.
I could build a life according to what was actually true for me rather than what my family, my culture, a church, a bank, or an institution decided a woman was supposed to be.
Read More