GLORIA STEINEM

GODMOTHER OF FEMINIST MEDIA
1934-2026

ORIGIN STORY

Gloria Steinem watched her mother be prescribed tranquilisers to keep her submissive, shut down and trapped in a life she did not want. On some level, everything that followed; the enormous body of work, the political activism, the movement creating, the community building, came from that knowledge about what culture and society does to women when it decides their feelings are “inconvenient”.

MATERNAL INTELLIGENCE

At Godmothers we define maternal intelligence as forward thinking, relational, safety and protection first, involving all of humanity. Steinem translated that intelligence into five decades of public life and service and political activism, determined dissemination of ideas across generations. She is a leading example of (as was Dolly Parton) the fact you do not need to be a biological mother to embody these qualities. She had children all over the world, women who grew up feeling her presence as a force for good.

FASHION ICON

She also dismantled the myth that a feminist must hate men or abandon femininity. She was a bonafide fashion icon. She spoke openly about having been in love four times. She married late and happily.

CULTURAL LEGACY

Legacy does not stop with death. Community building, the challenging of the status quo, the dissemination of facts and solutions, these are what perpetuate and change culture across time. Past, present and future are interconnected.

She carried the torch. She passed the torch. And she insisted, right until the end, on keeping her own.

GODMOTHERS ZINE

She reminds us why Godmothers exists: to keep telling women's stories, on our own terms, in print. Co-founding Ms. magazine in 1972, she created space for women's stories and politics to be taken seriously in print, at a time when few platforms would.

This is why we say the names for visibility of women in AI and tech in the cultural space.

We salute you, Gloria.

REST IN POWER.