Gloria Steinem Popular Books
Gloria Steinem Biography & Facts
Gloria Marie Steinem ( STY-nəm; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation," which brought her national attention and positioned her as a feminist leader. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus which provides training and support for women who seek elected and appointed offices in government. Also in 1971, she co-founded the Women's Action Alliance which, until 1997, provided support to a network of feminist activists and worked to advance feminist causes and legislation. In the 1990s, Steinem helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day, an occasion for young girls to learn about future career opportunities. In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that "works to make women visible and powerful in the media." As of May 2018, Steinem was traveling internationally as an organizer and lecturer, and was a media spokeswoman on issues of equality. In 2015, Steinem, alongside two Nobel Peace Laureates (Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia), Abigail Disney, and other prominent women peace activists, undertook a journey from the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang to South Korea, crossing the most heavily militarized zone in the world between the two Koreas. Early life Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, the daughter of Ruth (née Nuneviller) and Leo Steinem. Her mother was Presbyterian, mostly of German (including Prussian) and some Scottish descent. Her father was Jewish, the son of immigrants from Württemberg, Germany, and Radziejów, Poland. Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was chairwoman of the educational committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association, a delegate to the 1908 International Council of Women, and the first woman to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education, as well as a leader in the movement for vocational education. Pauline also rescued many members of her family from the Holocaust. The Steinems lived and traveled about in a trailer, from which Leo carried out his trade as a roaming antiques dealer. Before Gloria was born, her mother, Ruth, then age 34, had a "nervous breakdown" which left her an invalid, trapped in delusional fantasies that occasionally turned violent. She changed "from an energetic, fun-loving, book-loving" woman into "someone who was afraid to be alone, who could not hang on to reality long enough to hold a job, and who could rarely concentrate enough to read a book." Ruth spent long periods in and out of sanatoriums for the mentally ill. Steinem was ten years old when her parents separated in 1944. Her father went to California to find work, while she and her mother continued to live together in Toledo. While her parents divorced under the stress of her mother's illness, Steinem did not attribute it at all to male chauvinism on the father's part—she claims to have "understood and never blamed him for the breakup." Nevertheless, the impact of these events had a formative effect on her personality: while her father, a traveling salesman, had never provided much financial stability to the family, his exit aggravated their situation. Steinem concluded that her mother's inability to hold on to a job was evidence of general hostility towards working women. She also concluded that the general apathy of doctors towards her mother emerged from a similar anti-woman animus. Years later, Steinem described her mother's experience as pivotal to her understanding of social injustices.: 129–138 These perspectives convinced Steinem that women lacked social and political equality. Steinem attended Waite High School in Toledo and Western High School in Washington, D.C., graduating from the latter while living with her older sister Susanne Steinem Patch. She then attended Smith College, an institution with which she continues to remain engaged, from which she received her A.B. magna cum laude and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1957, Steinem had an abortion. The procedure was performed by Dr. John Sharpe, a British physician, when abortion was still illegal. Years later, Steinem dedicated her memoir My Life on the Road (2015) to him. She wrote, "Dr. John Sharpe of London, who in 1957, a decade before physicians in England could legally perform an abortion for any reason other than the health of the woman, took the considerable risk of referring for an abortion a twenty-two-year-old American on her way to India. Knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate, he said, 'You must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life.'" In the late 1950s, Steinem spent two years in India as a Chester Bowles Asian Fellow. After returning to the United States, she served as director of the Independent Research Service, an organization funded in secret by a donor that turned out to be the CIA. She worked to send non-Communist American students to the 1959 World Youth Festival. In 1960, she was hired by Warren Publishing as the first employee of Help! magazine. In 1950s, she was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, and later she went ahead to model her campaign after Gandhi's independence movement. Journalism Esquire magazine features editor Clay Felker gave freelance writer Steinem what she later called her first "serious assignment", regarding contraception; he didn't like her first draft and had her re-write the article. Her resulting 1962 article about the way in which women are forced to choose between a career and marriage preceded Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique by one year. In 1963, while working on an article for Huntington Hartford's Show magazine, Steinem was employed as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club. The article, published in 1963 as "A Bunny's Tale", featured a photo of Steinem in Bunny uniform and detailed how women were treated at those clubs. Steinem has maintained that she is proud of the work she did publicizing the exploitative working conditions of the bunnies and especially the sexual demands made of them, which skirted the edge of the law. However, for a brief period after the article was published, Steinem was unable to land other assignments; in her words, this was "because I had now become a Bunny—and it didn't matter why." However, on the upside, the article compelled the owner of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, to review and improve the working conditions of the Bunnies. In the interim, she conducted an interview with John Lennon for Cosmopolitan magazine in 1964. In 1965, she wrote for NBC-TV's weekly satirical revue, That Was The Week That Wa.... Discover the Gloria Steinem popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gloria Steinem books.
Best Seller Gloria Steinem Books of 2024
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I Kick and I Fly
Ruchira Gupta"Any work from Ruchira Gupta is sure to further the cause of liberating women, especially, and in this novel, girls. It takes a strong belief in us, and especially in our young one...
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Feminism for Women
Julie Bindel'Timely, necessary and important' J.K. Rowling'[This book is] guaranteed to remind us what we have still to fight for. I can't think of a single person who wouldn't benefit from re...
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Becoming RBG
Debbie LevyFrom the New York Times bestselling author of I Dissent comes a biographical graphic novel about celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Supreme Court justice Ruth Bad...
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She Made Me Laugh
Richard M. Cohen“A very personal remembrance of Nora Ephron’s life and loves, and her ups and downs” (USA TODAY) by her longtime and dear friend Richard Cohen in a hilarious, blunt, raucous, and p...
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Rage Becomes Her
Soraya ChemalyA BEST BOOK OF 2018 SELECTION NPR The Washington Post Book Riot Autostraddle Psychology Today A BEST FEMINIST BOOK SELECTION Refinery 29, Book Riot, Autostraddle, BITCH Rage Be...
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Gloria Steinem
Maria Isabel Sánchez VegaraIn this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillioncopy bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the incredible life of Gloria Steinem, the worlds most famous fe...
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Rock My Soul
bell hooksFrom the late feminist icon and New York Times bestselling author of All About Love, an indepth look at one of the most critical issues facing African Americans: a collective wound...
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50 Years of Ms.
Katherine Spillar & Eleanor SmealThe New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice A celebration of Ms.the most startling, most audacious, most normbreaking of the magazine's groundbreaking pieces on women, men...
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Pure
Linda Kay KleinIn Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us “inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can” (Gl...
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I Dissent
Debbie LevyGet to know celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgin the first picture book about her lifeas she proves that disagreeing does not make you disagreeable!Supreme Court ...
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Ms. Gloria Steinem
Winifred ConklingThroughout the years, Gloria Steinem is perhaps the singlemost iconic figure associated with women's rights, her name practically synonymous with the word "feminism." Documenting e...
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A Little Piece of Light
Donna Hylton, Kristine Gasbarre & Eve EnslerRandom Family meets Orange Is the New Black in A Little Piece of Light, a memoir of survival, redemption, hope, and sisterhood from a bold new voice on the front lines of the crimi...
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Gloria Steinem
Sydney Ladensohn SternIncludes a new afterword: A “richly detailed” biography of the iconic feminist based on interviews with friends, family, colleagues, and Steinem herself (The Washington Post). Goin...
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Marilyn Monroe
Michelle MorganFor the first time in paperback, this valuable biography by the president of Marilyn Monroe’s UK fan club contains the most comprehensive collection of primary source material on M...
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The Awakened Woman
Tererai TrentWinner of a 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, this moving manifesto “empowers women to access a fearlessness that will enable community progress” (Essence). Thr...
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My Moment
Kristin Chenoweth, Kathy Najimy, Linda Perry, Chely Wright & Lauren BlitzerA collection of essays accompanied by beautiful blackandwhite photography from a diverse group of women on the moment they realized they were ready to fight for themselvesincluding...
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When Boys and Girls Become Men and Women
Dagmar Geisler & Jörg MüllerA Comprehensive, Fully Illustrated Guide to Our Changing Bodies Kids ask a lot of questions (and that's an understatement). Sometimes the answers are easy for parents to come up wi...
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The Republican War Against Women
Tanya MelichIn 1980, Republicans used appeals to sexist and racist bigotry to win the Presidency. The party adopted an electoral strategy that included getting votes by playing on the fear and...
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Dinners with Ruth
Nina TotenbergCelebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and lifeaffirming relationships, including her beautiful friendsh...
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Gloria Steinem
Maria Isabel Sánchez VegaraIn this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillioncopy bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the incredible life of Gloria Steinem, the world's most famous f...
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The Little Book of Feminist Saints
Julia Pierpont & Manjit ThappA perfect holiday gift, this beautifully illustrated collection honoring one hundred exceptional “feminist saints” throughout history is sure to inspire women and men alike.“A...
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The Treasure of the City of Ladies
Christine de Pizan & Sarah LawsonWritten by Europe’s first professional woman writer, The Treasure of the City of Ladies offers advice and guidance to women of all ages and from all levels of medieval society, fro...
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Read This for Inspiration
Ashly PerezFrom former BuzzFeed personality Ashly Perez comes a funny, honest, and unabashedly feminist book of inspiration and wisdom to help you plant some roots, live in the...
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WorkParty
Jaclyn JohnsonFirst, we leaned in. Now we stand up.In this “muchneeded combo of real talk, confessions, and lessons learned along the way” (Chelsea Handler), Jaclyn Johnsonthe founder and CEO be...
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Woman of the Year
Darcey BellA deliciously twisty thriller about the dark side of female friendship and a revenge plot that gets a little out of hand from the New York Times bestselling author of the “intense,...
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My Life on the Road
Gloria SteinemNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Gloria Steinemwriter, activist, organizer, and inspiring leadertells a story she has never told before, a candid account of her life as a traveler, a lis...
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Women who Changed the World
PyramidThe 20th century began with a sense of great optimism after centuries of oppression. It was to be one of the most violent and tumultuous in world history and paved the way for many...
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Shameless
Nadia Bolz-WeberNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Raw, intimate, and timelya noholdsbarred celebration of our bodies that flies in the face of antiquated ideas about sex and gender. “A triumph.”Gl...
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Tidal Wave
Sara EvansForty years ago few women worked, married women could not borrow money in their own names, schools imposed strict quotas on female applicants, and sexual harassment did not exist a...
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Body Counts
Sean StrubThe founder of POZ magazine shares “a captivating…eyewitness account from inside the AIDS epidemic” (Next) and “a moving, multidecade memoir of one gay man’s life” (San Francisco C...
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My Own Words
Ruth Bader GinsburgThe New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg“a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fa...
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The Bunny Years
Kathryn Leigh ScottA PROVOCATIVE AND INSIGHTFUL PORTRAIT OF THE BEAUTIFUL, FREESPIRITED, AND SURPRISINGLY INDEPENDENT WOMEN OF THE ICONIC PLAYBOY CLUBS The 1960s were a time of change in America, an ...
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This I Believe
Jay Allison & Dan GedimanAn inspiring collection of the personal philosophies of a group of remarkable men and womenBased on the National Public Radio series of the same name, This I Believe features eight...
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Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue
Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Amanda L. TylerRuth Bader Ginsburg’s final book offers an intimate look at her extraordinary life and details her lifelong pursuit for gender equality and a “more perfect Union.”In the fall of 20...
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Big Friendship
Aminatou Sow & Ann FriedmanA close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding frien...
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Smile
Sarah RuhlA People Best Book of the Year Time and The Washington Post’s Most Anticipated List Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence From the MacArthur genius, twotime Pu...
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Oriana Fallaci
Cristina de Stefano & Marina HarssA landmark biography of the most famous Italian journalist of the twentieth century, an inspiring and often controversial woman who defied the codes of reportage and established th...
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Gloria Steinem
Lynn GilbertThe oral biography of Gloria Steinem, whose dedication to feminism and other movements for social justice continues to improve life for millions of people worldwide. Editorial Rev...
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I, Rhoda
Valerie HarperThe heartwarming memoir of beloved television actress Valerie Harper, best known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and on Rhoda.Valerie Harper was an u...