The Life and Legacy of Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem

**Kusha Navadar** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Kusha Navadar filling in for Brian. Early this morning, we learned of the death at 92 of Gloria Steinem, the journalist, writer, activist and feminist icon. And we are sure that many of you want to share a memory of her, what she accomplished, how she kept going. She has a new book about to come out, for example. So call us at 212-433-WNYC.
That's 212-433-9692.
You can call or text us. Here's some of the social media posts that announced her passing. Quote, Yesterday, Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her. Gloria's near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end. Unquote. And this was one of the first comments on that post. Thank you, Gloria. I am a proud, never married, child-free, cat lady, lawyer, powerlifter because of you. You helped pave the way for me to have choices, to have a voice, to be independent. So listeners, do you want to share what Gloria Steinem meant for you? Were you an early reader of Ms. Magazine that she co-founded? Was your consciousness raised by one of her favorite slogans? A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. If you were born after the 1970s and the early days of the feminist movement, what made you a fan? Call or text us at 212-433-WNYC.
That's 212-433-9692.
Joining us now is former Manhattan Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who worked alongside Gloria Steinem to try and pass the Equal Rights Amendment. She is now the president of the New York State Chapter of the National Organization for Women and founder of Sign4ERA. Welcome back to WNYC. Ms. Maloney, can I call you that?

**Carolyn Maloney** (2:21)
Call me Carolyn.

**Kusha Navadar** (2:23)
Carolyn, hi, welcome to the show. And I'm sorry for your loss.

**Carolyn Maloney** (2:27)
Well, Kusha, thank you for really sharing this opportunity for us to talk about what she meant to us, what she meant to the country. She was a groundbreaking trailblazer. She was a great strategist, a great supporter of all women and like-minded men. And she brought tremendous change for women.
She co-founded, really, the Women's Political Caucus and also the Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, which we've always honored in Congress. She would come up for the press conference, the meetings, and go around to some of the offices where daughters were going. And we always spent that time to talk and strategize. When I became a committee chair, I held the first hearing in Congress in 40 years on the ERA. And Gloria participated by Zoom. At that time, she was not going out that much. And she was always making a contribution right up to the end. I loved her dearly as a friend and a great inspiration and a great leader. Thank you, Kusha, for having this program on her.

**Kusha Navadar** (3:35)
Of course. And thank you for being a part of it. I'm wondering for you, Carolyn, former congresswoman, what are your thoughts on hearing of her passing this morning? What's going on for you right now?

**Carolyn Maloney** (3:45)
Well, she was the type of person that you wanted to live forever. And even though she was 92, and you could see that she was becoming frail. She still, she didn't go out, but she would hold events at her home, always, usually, support, empowerment for not-for-profits that were trying to help women in some way.
She was a great inspiration. I feel her loss, but I feel that her contributions and her leadership and her wisdom, she was always a great advisor and a great strategist on how to move things forward. She'll be with us always in that respect. I adored her in the best sense of the word.

**Kusha Navadar** (4:34)
Yeah, it looks like we've got our first caller. So let's hear from some others as well. We've got Pia from Queens. Hi, Pia. Welcome to the show.

**Pia** (4:43)
Hi. Thank you for having me. I wanted to share my favorite line from My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem that really changed how I looked at my own language, Bengali. And the line is, I discovered that native languages, Cherokee and others like Bengali and other ancient languages, didn't have gendered pronouns like he and she. A human being was a human being. And when I read that line, it forever changed how I looked at my own language, Bengali and the world. So rest in peace, Gloria Steinem.
You really made a difference.

**Kusha Navadar** (5:22)
Pia, thank you so much for that call.