Gloria Steinem Changed My Life

 Gloria Steinem (1934–2026) Changed My Life

Steven B. Zwickel

3 September 2026

In late April, 1970, as a college Junior, I went to hear a talk in the Student Center Social Room. The college newspaper, The Colonial News, said the topic would be “Women’s Liberation” and I admit I didn’t think I would take it seriously. In fact, I remember joking with my companion about women being as good as men. I think I said something like, “If I were in a burning building, I’d want a big, husky fireman with a big axe to come rescue me, not some petite woman who was worried about ruining her fingernail polish.”  

What I heard that night changed my mind and changed my life. 

There were two speakers, Dorothy Pitman [Hughes] (1938–2022) and Gloria Steinem. *

They were both extraordinary presenters who demonstrated their understanding of male-female relationships in a way I had never heard before. Ms. Pitman talked about the way Black women were demeaned. Ms. Steinem described why unequal treatment was bad for both men and women. By the end of the evening, I had been converted into a believer in women’s equality.

I wrote a letter to Ms. Steinem, telling her about the impact her presentation had on me and thanking her for making me aware of the way women were treated in our society. Somewhere, probably in a box in the basement, is the response I received. Gloria Steinem congratulated me for having opened myself up to the idea of female equality. Then she wrote something about how she was glad I had become a feminist.

That’s it—Gloria Steinem called me a feminist!

In the decades since then, I have adjusted to, and become comfortable with, the advances made by women. In 1970 I think the idea of women studying medicine and becoming physicians was new. We had doctors and we had “women doctors” back then. Today, my primary physician, my endocrinologist, my renal specialist, and my urologist are all women.  No big deal; the world has changed, I think, for the better.

On another level though, the way women have been treated historically still rankles. For centuries they were treated as second-class citizens—it was OK for men to be literate or educated, sometimes. Women were rarely, if ever, given the opportunity to fully participate in life beyond home-making and bearing children. Can you imagine how different the world would be today if the other 50% of the population had been allowed access to science, medicine, engineering, philosophy, mathematics, etc? What problems could have been solved if we’d had twice as many people in these fields? 

Thank you, Gloria, for helping me and so many other people understand the value of equality and fairness. You will be missed.

Gloria Steinem died September 2, 2026

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* Ms. Pitman's presence is explained in The New York Times Friday, September 4, 2026: "As her (Steinem's) profile rose and she became increasingly visible, she wrestled with an unexpected problem: an almost pathological fear of public speaking. She dreaded standing at a podium alone, afraid that her mouth would go dry. Her solution was to bring speaking partners with her. One was Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a forceful activist who ran a child-care center and expounded on issues of race, class and motherhood in roiling debates about feminism. A 1971 photograph of the two, their fists raised in solidarity, became an iconic image of the era."