How Did Gloria Steinem Contribute To The Women's Rights Movement

Gloria Steinem - women's rights activist and journalist - a female who has left a big footprint on American history and contemporary society. Born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem has had a full life of adventure and outstanding accomplishments towards the women's movement. As a child, Steinem and her family traveled a lot due to her fathers work. Before reaching her teens, Steinem's parents divorced, her older sister Sue left for college, and she was left to take care of her mentally ill mother (who had anxiety and agoraphobia) in a run-down house back in Toledo, Ohio. Steinem had to balance her school work, social life, and caring for her mother during her teen years before leaving for college. In a fairly desperate situation, Steinem received some help from a next door church (who bought her mothers home), and from her father (who agreed to care for her mother for a year) while she went to college. At Smith College, Steinem studied government, graduating in 1956. It was clear that she didn't care to follow the traditional path for women - marriage and motherhood. Steinem felt that when women chose marriage, it was the last choice they had. She also didn't want to care for any children as she already had to be like a parent when she cared for her mother. After graduating, Steinem broke off a college engagement and went to
launched a television talk show called Woman Alive, which was hosted by Steinem. In 1975, she attended the International Women’s Year conference in Mexico City, but not as a delegate. Along with many others, she was disappointed that women’s real concerns were being ignored over nationalistic issues and in propaganda. Two years later, as a member of Jimmy Carter’s national commission to organize an American Conference on Women to be held in Dallas in 1977, Steinem traveled around the country speaking about feminist concerns and organizing state conferences that would elect delegates to the national