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Gloria Steinem, whose journalism, organizing, and public advocacy made her one of the most recognizable leaders of the modern women’s movement, has died. She was 92.

Steinem died peacefully Wednesday, Sept. 2, at her home in New York City, surrounded by loved ones, according to an announcement posted on her official Instagram account. A specific cause of death was not disclosed. 

Over a career spanning more than 60 years, Steinem campaigned for equal pay, reproductive freedom, political representation, and an end to discrimination based on sex. She helped translate the demands of the women’s liberation movement into language that reached millions of Americans through magazines, television appearances, speeches, and books.

Steinem was born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Her early life was unsettled, with the family traveling frequently before her parents divorced. As a teenager, she helped care for her mother, Ruth, who struggled with mental illness. Steinem later said that watching her mother contend with limited choices and opportunities helped shape her understanding of women’s inequality.

After graduating from Smith College in 1956 with a degree in government, Steinem spent two years in India. She later credited the experience with teaching her about grassroots organizing and the value of listening to people whose voices were often excluded from positions of power.

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From undercover reporter to public activist

Steinem struggled to win serious assignments when she began working as a freelance journalist in New York, where women were often confined to fashion and lifestyle coverage.

Her breakthrough came in 1963, when she went undercover as a waitress at New York’s Playboy Club. Her resulting article, “A Bunny’s Tale,” documented low pay, sexual demands, and difficult working conditions behind the club’s glamorous image. The exposé attracted national attention but also made some editors reluctant to give her other assignments.

In 1968, Steinem helped launch New York magazine, where she wrote about politics and social issues. A year later, she attended a public hearing at which women described their experiences obtaining illegal abortions. Steinem, who had undergone an abortion in her 20s, later described that event as the moment when her personal experiences became inseparable from her political activism.

She became a prominent supporter of abortion rights and the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. In 1970, she testified before the Senate in support of the amendment, arguing that laws and traditions had denied women equal standing in American society.

Steinem helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971 with other prominent activists, including Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan. The organization sought to increase women’s participation in politics and elect more women to public office.

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The creation of Ms.

Steinem’s most enduring journalistic achievement was Ms. magazine, which first appeared as an insert in New York Magazine in 1971 before becoming an independent publication in 1972.

Ms. addressed subjects that were rarely treated seriously in mainstream publications, including domestic violence, sexual harassment, abortion, unequal pay, and the division of labor inside the home. Steinem served as an editor and writer for the magazine for 15 years.

She also helped establish the Women’s Action Alliance, the Ms. Foundation for Women, Voters for Choice and, with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan, the Women’s Media Center. Her advocacy expanded beyond gender equality to include civil rights, LGBTQ rights, economic justice, and opposition to war and apartheid. The National Women’s History Museum documents her extensive work as both an organizer and writer.

Steinem was not without critics. Some activists argued that the media’s focus on her overshadowed feminists of color and working-class organizers. She was also criticized for her 1998 defense of President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a position she later said she would not express in the same way.

Steinem repeatedly emphasized that feminism had to encompass racial and economic justice. She used her celebrity to promote other activists and remained a highly sought-after speaker well into her later years.

Her books included “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions,” “Revolution from Within,” “Moving Beyond Words,” and the 2015 memoir “My Life on the Road.” A new memoir, “An Unexpected Life,” is scheduled to be published posthumously in September.

President Barack Obama awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, calling attention to her ability to recognize both the obvious and subtle ways women experienced inequality.

Steinem married environmentalist and businessman David Bale, the father of actor Christian Bale, in 2000. He died in 2003.

Her death closes one of the longest and most influential careers in modern American activism. Steinem helped make subjects once dismissed as private women’s concerns into matters of national politics—and inspired generations to continue a campaign for equality she regarded as unfinished.