Remembering Gloria Steinem ’56
News
Gloria Steinem ’56 giving her commencement address at Smith College in 1971
Published September 4, 2026
Smith College Special Collections honors the life of social justice activist, writer, and feminist icon Gloria Steinem ‘56 who passed away on September 2, 2026 at the age of 92.
For more than 50 years, Steinem worked fervently to make the world a fairer place for women and other marginalized groups. Though often portrayed by the media as the face of women’s liberation, she preferred to highlight the many women with whom she worked side-by-side as the real source of strength for the movement. As a journalist, magazine editor, public speaker, and feminist organizer, Steinem sought to call attention to the injustices women faced in nearly all aspects of society, such as sexual harassment, unequal pay, and domestic violence.
The Sophia Smith Collection of women’s history stewards the Gloria Steinem papers, which consist of more than 350 boxes of material documenting her activism, writings, and personal life. Her archive is open to everyone, both in-person at the Special Collections reading room and online.
To learn more about her records and how to access them, see the Special Collections Gloria Steinem research guide, the finding aid to the Gloria Steinem papers, and digitized material from the collection on the Five College Compass repository.
From the Collections
