The first and only time I met the late and great Gloria Steinem in person, I was at the annual conference of the National Women’s Studies Association.
It was in November of 2017. Steinem was already in her 80s, and I had settled into a keynote presentation by another feminist icon, the postcolonial feminist scholar Chandra Mohanty. She gave me the critical tools I needed to decenter Western culture and to position the rest of the world in the interests of feminisms. It was the kind of work that built on the feminist foundations laid by women like Steinem.
While engrossed in Mohanty’s lecture, I suddenly received a text pinging from my smart phone. One of the editors at Ms. Magazine with whom I regularly worked as a contributing writer, messaged me in excitement: “Gloria Steinem is at our Ms. Magazine Booth!”
Talk about a real dilemma. Do I walk out of a great lecture by one of my feminist scholar heroes, or do I meet another great feminist icon, one who was already in her elderly years? I weighed the circumstances. Mohanty would continue to attend this annual conference and have other opportunities to lecture, to convene, to even intermingle with the rest of us (and sure enough, it was not long before I had that opportunity to meet with Mohanty in a special group meeting years later). Would I ever get to meet Gloria Steinem outside of this moment?
Quietly and hurriedly, I skipped out on the keynote and made my way to the Ms. Magazine booth at the conference’s Exhibit Hall. I even had one of my magazine issues with me (the one with my cover story on “Beyoncé’s Fierce Feminism” for the spring 2013 issue).
What a moment that was! As I rushed to that booth, there was Gloria Steinem, quite diminutive but even in her 80s her recognizable features and long hair were undeniable. I shyly introduced myself, and she graciously greeted me and even made me feel at ease. Before long, I rediscovered my boldness and asked for her signature on my cover story. I remember our conversation quite well:
“Oh, Beyoncé’s feminism,” she noted approvingly. “I attended her Chime for Change concert. And when she addressed the women and girls in the audience and told us, ‘You are safe here.’ Well, she had me at hello.”
We then continued our conversation about Beyoncé, the significance of her bringing feminism into the mainstream, standing in front of that “feminist” sign at MTV’s Video Music Awards show in 2014. If nothing else, that moment - and my own in writing and naming the pop star’s efforts at women-centered messaging around gender equality - proved the lasting impact of Gloria Steinem and her popularization of feminism, as well as the overall influence of feminist-based media such as Ms. Magazine and its platforms used to champion gender liberation.
I was born in the 1970s, the same decade that Steinem did so much of her impactful work to galvanize the feminist movement: from helping to launch the magazine that featured my cover story, to championing reproductive rights and women’s independence. Because of women like Steinem, I was able to walk on pathways already paved by their bold and courageous fight that made it easier for my generation to matriculate to colleges that offered fields like women’s, gender and sexuality studies where I developed my doctoral scholarship and currently teach as a tenured professor. Because of women like Steinem, I can independently own my own credit cards and bank accounts, and I can also regulate my own reproductive choices (at least until 2022).
For a woman who for much of her time, opted out of marriage until age 66 and chose to remain childfree, Steinem married on her own timetable and demonstrated the independence and autonomy of a woman, beginning with the title “Ms.” that did away with announcing a woman’s single or marital status. And she did all that while maintaining important ties with progressive movements and demonstrating alliances with feminists of all stripes – from defending Black feminists like Angela Davis to befriending Alice Walker and bell hooks, to showing up wherever feminist work was being done.
Gloria Steinem leaves us just at the moment when the pushback against feminism threatens not just women and girls, but all genders and all communities that believe in social justice and equality. So, we grieve, we remember, we evaluate our heroes for their strengths (and sometimes their flaws), but we also move forward with past knowledges and struggles as we learn the necessary lessons their exemplary lives have taught us. The baton has been passed, and we owe it to those coming after us to keep the flame light burning, to persist, to fight, and to live this life for ourselves and for each other.
Janell Hobson is Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and a contributing writer and guest editor at Ms. Magazine. She has authored several books, volumes, and articles on Black women’s histories and popular representations in media and culture.
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