In Gloria Steinem's Name We Continue the Work

For more than sixty years, Gloria Steinem pushed the country to take women’s equality seriously… in the workplace, in health care, in the right to make decisions about our own bodies and our own futures.

She co-founded Ms. Magazine because, as she put it, there was nothing for women to read that women controlled. She spent a lifetime on the road, in classrooms and church basements and union halls, doing the slower work of organizing rather than the easier work of being famous.

Why It Matters

Gloria was consistent about wanting the movement to be about more than her. She pushed back when people asked who she’d “pass the torch” to, because she didn’t see the work as something one person carries and hands off. She saw it as something a community carries together, and something that isn’t yet finished.

That view aligns with the Women’s Fund’s mission work today. Personal safety. Body autonomy. Civic engagement. Economic literacy and financial well-being. For Gloria, these were all part of the same idea: women deserve full control over their bodies and lives. And today, we carry on… leaning on Gloria’s hope.

How We’re Marking This Moment

We’re inviting our community to make a gift in her name. It’s more than a memorial in the past tense. It’s a way of picking up work she was clear was never hers alone to finish.

WF board director Pam Klein has issued a $10,000 matching challenge. Every gift made through this appeal will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $10,000, doubling its impact.

Our top giving level is $1,934 representing the year Gloria was born. Donors who give at this level will also receive a permanent seat at the Oriental Threatre through our partnership with Milwaukee Film. More on that here.

Gloria spent her life building something meant to outlast her. The clearest way to honor that is to keep building it.

We also invite you to join us on November 12 for a discussion of Gloria’s final memoir, “An Unexpected Life,” hosted by
WF board director Pamela Klein at our Sunny Table.
RSVP for Nov. 12 here.