vVital Voices mourns the loss of Gloria Steinem, a singular force for equality whose courage, conviction and belief in the power of women changed the world.
For generations, Gloria challenged us to imagine something different: a world in which women could define their own lives, exercise their own power and lead change on their own terms. She understood that progress was never the work of one person. It was built through movements.
To those who knew her, this was her most defining quality: Gloria was always putting other activists forward, wanting to make it clear that she was one part of a larger movement.
She understood the power of her name and her platform, and she used both generously. She made space for other voices. She gathered people together. She listened. She connected. When women were taking on difficult fights, she stood beside them.
She never thought twice about being on the right side of history.
For Vital Voices, Gloria showed up in moments that were crucial for driving change at a global scale.
Woman. Life. Freedom and the Removal of Islamic Republic of Iran from the UN CSW
In September 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Zhina Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab.
Amini’s death ignited a movement.
Woman. Life. Freedom.
Women and girls took to the streets, risking their lives to demand fundamental freedoms. As the Iranian government responded with violence and repression, Iranian women leaders and members of the diaspora approached us with an urgent call for solidarity.
Vital Voices listened.
Working with Iranian women within our network and beyond, and in partnership with the artist collective For Freedoms, we helped launch a global campaign calling for the removal of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
The contradiction was impossible to ignore: a government violently suppressing women was helping shape global standards for women’s rights.
When we asked leaders around the world to stand with Iranian women, Gloria joined the movement.
She lent her name, her platform and her support to the campaign, joining Iranian activists and leaders including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey and other women heads of state from around the world.
The campaign grew. An open letter appeared as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times. Governments added their voices. More than 80,000 people joined the call.
And on December 14, 2022, the United Nations Economic and Social Council voted to remove the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women.
It was an extraordinary victory, led by Iranian women, which Gloria helped to bolster.
Gloria did not need to be at the center of the story. She understood that her power could be most useful when she put it behind the women who were already leading.
Ongoing Solidarity
Her name appeared alongside former presidents and prime ministers, activists, artists and advocates. But once again, the story was not about Gloria. It was about the young women leading. She was there to help their voices carry farther.
In 2019, Gloria joined Vital Voices at our seventh annual Voices of Solidarity Awards in New York, an evening dedicated to recognizing men using their influence to help end violence against women and girls. At the event, she presented François Henri-Pinault, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kering, with the Solidarity Honoree award.
The premise of Voices of Solidarity reflected something Gloria understood throughout her life: achieving equality requires changing culture, along with laws, and bringing more people into the work.
At the event, Gloria was among the leaders presenting awards to men advocating for women and girls, joining a community united around the understanding that ending gender-based violence requires collective action.
Her presence represented more than participation in a single evening. It reflected the way Gloria approached a lifetime of activism: movements become stronger when we expand the circle.
Her Voice Never Stopped Moving Forward
Decades into her activism, Gloria never stopped answering the call. She continued to add her voice when women’s rights and leadership were at stake.
Earlier this year, Vital Voices joined a new generation of young women leading My Voice, My Choice, a European citizens’ movement fighting to ensure safe and accessible abortion care across Europe.
What began with a small group of young women in Slovenia led by Nika Kovač, a member of the Vital Voices Global Network, became a movement of more than 1.2 million people across all 27 European Union member states.
When Vital Voices asked global leaders to sign an open letter urging the European Commission to act on that extraordinary democratic mandate, Gloria was one of the first people to say yes.
Of course she was.
There is something fitting in that one of her final collaborations with the Vital Voices community centered on young women building a movement of their own.
Gloria spent a lifetime opening doors. But she also understood that leadership means ensuring others can walk through them, and then open doors for those who come next.
“The Truth Will Set You Free…”
Gloria had an extraordinary gift for distilling big ideas into words people remembered.
We have a collection of quotes that have continued to inspire us:
“One day an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the Earth!”
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere.”
“Once we give up searching for approval we often find it easier to earn respect.”
Gloria knew that progress begins with seeing the world as it is, and refusing to accept that it must remain that way.
A Legacy That Multiplies
At Vital Voices, we believe in the ripple effect of women’s leadership.
We see it when one woman gains the connections she needs and creates opportunities for hundreds more. We see it when a leader becomes a mentor, an activist builds a coalition, or one courageous voice becomes a movement.
Gloria Steinem embodied that multiplier effect across generations.
Her legacy cannot be measured only by the movements she helped build, the words she wrote or the barriers she helped dismantle. It lives in the women who discovered their own power because she insisted that their voices mattered—and in the women those leaders will inspire in turn.
That is how change endures.
For nearly three decades, Vital Voices has invested in women leaders who are taking on the world’s greatest challenges. Today, our global community stretches across countries, cultures and generations, united by a belief Gloria shared throughout her life: women are not waiting to be given power. They are already leading. Our responsibility is to recognize them, invest in them and stand beside them.
We are profoundly grateful that Gloria stood beside us.
Her voice helped change the world. Her belief in other women’s voices will continue to change it.
We honor Gloria by carrying that work forward, together.
The VV Dove statue in honor of Gloria Steinem at VVHQ. Lancer Photography, 2022. All rights reserved.