Feminist icon and pioneering journalist Gloria Steinem died Wednesday at 92. A co-founder of Ms. magazine and the National Women’s Political Caucus, Steinem became one of the most influential voices of the modern women’s rights movement and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

Over more than six decades advocating for gender equality, Steinem witnessed dramatic changes that impacted women’s lives. Many of these changes addressed sexism that Steinem had personally experienced. Some of the sexism she encountered early in her career now seems almost incomprehensible. Other aspects seem surprisingly familiar.

Landlords Could Turn Away Single Women

When Steinem was first renting her own apartment in 1968, landlords often declined to rent to single women. In an interview with poet and political activist, Suheir Hammad, Steinem said, “When I moved into this place in 1968, it was still common for landlords to refuse to rent to single women. If you were a female human being, you clearly were going to marry and skip off. Or, if you could afford the rent, you must be a hooker.”

When Steinem moved into her apartment in 1968, New York City landlords could still legally discriminate against prospective tenants because they were women or single. It wasn’t until 1973 that the city outlawed housing discrimination based on sex or marital status. A year later, Congress added sex as a protected category under the federal Fair Housing Act.

Marriage Could Cost Women Rights

Steinem was engaged to be married at age 22, but broke off the engagement. She didn’t marry until age 66.

Explaining why she decided to marry later in life, she said , “I didn’t change, marriage changed. We spent 30 years in the United States changing the marriage laws. If I had married when I was supposed to get married, I would have lost my name, my legal residence, my credit rating, many of my civil rights. That’s not true anymore. It’s possible to make an equal marriage.”

Indeed, laws impacting married women have changed a great deal. Rape within marriage was still legal when Steinem was first engaged. It wasn’t until 1993 that marital rape was technically a crime in all 50 states.

In addition, lenders commonly treated married women differently from men when evaluating credit, some requiring a husband’s signature to even establish credit. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act made discrimination based on sex or marital status illegal in 1974.

Even a woman’s name could be affected by marriage. As late as 1971, a federal court upheld Alabama’s requirement that married women obtain driver’s licenses using their husbands’ surnames.

Steinem said she had never been called beautiful until she became publicly identified as a feminist, in her mid-30s. She believed the emphasis on her attractiveness allowed people to suggest that her success and influence came from her looks rather than from her work.

As an example, a 1992 Vanity Fair profile of Steinem, ostensibly about one of America’s most important feminist thinkers, focuses on her appearance. It describes her, “whippet-thin and gorgeous, as glamorous as a movie star,” and her outfit, “a miniskirt riding outrageously high over those spectacular racehorse legs, a glittering gold tunic that made her stand out instantly in a crowded room, that radiant face partly obscured by the ever present curtain of blond-streaked hair.”

Decades later, this emphasis on women’s looks is far from a thing of the past. People still feel remarkably comfortable evaluating women’s appearance, even when their appearance has nothing to do with their accomplishments.

Just last week President Trump called New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman “unattractive inside and out” and referred to her as “Maggot Haberman.” And Amal Clooney is an international human-rights lawyer whose work involves genocide, war crimes and international courts, yet coverage of her routinely centers on her hair, clothing and beauty. Just within the last few days, articles about the Venice Film Festival have focused on her dresses and hair.

Steered Away From Serious Assignments

Early in her journalism career, Steinem wanted to write about politics. She frequently spoke about how editors steered her toward stories about food and fashion, including an article on textured stockings that she called “the lowpoint of my life.” She recalled that when she pitched political stories to The New York Times Sunday Magazine , an editor told her , “I don’t think of you that way.”

Sadly, there’s plenty of evidence that today, women are still steered into different types of work than men. Women journalists remain disproportionately concentrated in health, education and social-issue coverage, while men are more likely to cover politics, technology and sports. Research in other workplaces also finds that women are still more likely to be asked to take on work that offers fewer opportunities for advancement.

No Word For Sexual Harassment

Steinem described how, as a journalist, a male editor gave her the choice to spend the afternoon in a hotel with him, or mail his letters on the way out. She chose to mail the letters. “There was no word for sexual harassment then,” she has said . “It was just life.”

The term “sexual harassment” was not coined until 1975 by a group of feminist activists and educators at Cornell University. In 1980, the EEOC formally recognized workplace sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Six years later, the Supreme Court affirmed that sexual harassment is prohibited under Title VII.

So, today, the behavior has a name, and it’s clearly illegal. It has not, however, disappeared. A 2025 New York State poll reveals that nearly a third of women have experienced sexual harassment at work.

Abortion Rights Granted Then Taken Away

Steinem had an illegal abortion in London as a young woman. Years later, as a journalist, she attended a gathering where women discussed their experiences obtaining illegal abortions. She later pointed to that gathering as a catalyst for her activist career.

It wasn’t until 1973 that Roe v. Wade recognized a constitutional right to abortion. That right remained in place until the Supreme Court overturned it in 2022, leaving abortion policy up to the individual states.

Among the many changes Steinem witnessed in her lifetime, this stands out. It was the only example of a legal right women had gained that was later taken away.

Steinem experienced sexism firsthand, spent much of her life fighting to change it and lived to see some real progress. Her death is a reminder that some of that work remains unfinished and, hopefully, serves as an inspiration to continue it.