● LIVEECB RATE 2.4%·EUR/USD 1.1622·EUR/GBP 0.8590·BRUSSELS 15°C — OVERCAST·BOND YIELDS ARE SURGING GLOBALLY BUT WHY AREN’T EQUITIES FALLING?·FROM GIANT TVS TO 'JAMES BOND GLASSES': TCL'S VISION FOR THE FUTURE·BARDELLA SIGNS PACT WITH FARAGE TO STOP SMALL BOAT CROSSINGS 'FOREVER'·SENIOR EU OFFICIALS RETIERATE NEED FOR NEW EUROPE-WIDE TAXES IN NEXT BUDGET·PASSPORT FOR A NEWBORN: BIRTH TOURISM AS PART OF RUSSIA'S NEW EMIGRATION·INSIDE THE QUIET LUXURY REVIVAL OF THE VENICE LIDO – HOME TO THE GLITTERING FILM FESTIVAL·WEEK 37 · N°253·● LIVEECB RATE 2.4%·EUR/USD 1.1622·EUR/GBP 0.8590·BRUSSELS 15°C — OVERCAST·BOND YIELDS ARE SURGING GLOBALLY BUT WHY AREN’T EQUITIES FALLING?·FROM GIANT TVS TO 'JAMES BOND GLASSES': TCL'S VISION FOR THE FUTURE·BARDELLA SIGNS PACT WITH FARAGE TO STOP SMALL BOAT CROSSINGS 'FOREVER'·SENIOR EU OFFICIALS RETIERATE NEED FOR NEW EUROPE-WIDE TAXES IN NEXT BUDGET·PASSPORT FOR A NEWBORN: BIRTH TOURISM AS PART OF RUSSIA'S NEW EMIGRATION·INSIDE THE QUIET LUXURY REVIVAL OF THE VENICE LIDO – HOME TO THE GLITTERING FILM FESTIVAL·WEEK 37 · N°253·
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Thursday, 10 September 2026
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Culture03 September 2026

Remembering Gloria Steinem: A life in powerful quotes and witticisms

Gloria Steinem, the feminist trailblazer, writer and activist who helped define the modern women’s movement in the US, has died at 92.

Remembering Gloria Steinem: A life in powerful quotes and witticisms

Gloria Steinem will be remembered as a hugely influential icon of America's feminist movement.

The internationally recognised journalist, author and feminist activist was one of the most famous voices of the US’ women’s movement. She dedicated her life to causes such as reproductive freedom, the legalisation of abortion, domestic violence prevention, equal rights and pay for women, as well as the fight for political gender equality.

Following thenews of her death at age 92, here are some of her most powerful, insightful and witty quotes.

Gloria Steinem - New York - 17 Feb. 1970
Gloria Steinem - New York - 17 Feb. 1970 AP Photo
Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That’s their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.
A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.
FILE - Bella Abzug and Patsy Mink of Women USA sit next to Gloria Steinem - 21 Nov. 1979
FILE - Bella Abzug and Patsy Mink of Women USA sit next to Gloria Steinem - 21 Nov. 1979 AP Photo
The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.
The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.
Gloria Steinem marches with members of striking telephone answering service operators from Americall - Massachusetts - 7 July 1982
Gloria Steinem marches with members of striking telephone answering service operators from Americall - Massachusetts - 7 July 1982 AP Photo
A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
Gloria Steinem - New York - 1 Aug. 1987
Gloria Steinem - New York - 1 Aug. 1987 AP Photo
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
Pop culture shapes our ideas of what is normal and what our dreams can be and what our roles are. Politics, of course, decides how the power and the money in the country is distributed. Both are equally important, and each affects the other.
Gloria Steinem at the 2018 Women's Media Awards, hosted by the Women's Media Center - New York - 1 Nov. 2018
Gloria Steinem at the 2018 Women's Media Awards, hosted by the Women's Media Center - New York - 1 Nov. 2018 AP Photo
So what would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?… Street guys would invent slang (“He’s a three-pad man”) and “give fives” on the corner with some exchange like: “Man you lookin’ good!” “Yeah, man, I’m on the rag!”
If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?
President Barack Obama awards Gloria Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom - 20 Nov. 2013
President Barack Obama awards Gloria Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom - 20 Nov. 2013 AP Photo
We’ll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.
If Trump spoke well of me, I would shoot myself.
Gloria Steinem speaks to the crowd during the women's march rally in the Trump inauguration protest - 21 Jan. 2017
Gloria Steinem speaks to the crowd during the women's march rally in the Trump inauguration protest - 21 Jan. 2017 AP Photo
Now we know that, say, women can do what men can do - most folks would agree with that. But we don’t know that men could do what women can do.
Empathy is the most radical of human emotions.
Gloria Steinem - 8 March 2023
Gloria Steinem - 8 March 2023 AP Photo

RIP Gloria Steinem 1934 - 2026

■ ENDCulture© The Debate 2026