Gloria Steinem

When Gloria Steinem was still very small, her mother became incapacitated by mental problems that left Gloria in charge of both of them for the rest of her childhood. Nevertheless, she somehow graduated from high school and college, distinguishing herself as an intelligent and insightful analyst and writer.

Convinced that at least some portion of her mother's difficulties were caused by anti-women sentiment in U.S. culture, Steinem burst on the scene in the mainstream media from her very beginning as a published writer by shining the light of truth on social institutions and social practices everyone else seemed to take for granted as just the way things are. Articles on such topics as how women are forced to choose between careers and marriage and what being a Playboy bunny was really like quickly vaulted Steinem into the gutsy forefront of the feminist revolution in the late 1960's and 1970's. And she has stayed there ever since.

She co-founded Ms Magazine, the National Women's Political Caucus, the Women's Action Alliance, the  Coalition of Labor Union Women, Choice USA, and the Women's Media Center. And in her spare time, she toured the country with in-your-face woman Florynce Kennedy in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, led the New York City parade as part of the nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality, and wrote and wrote and wrote. One of Steinem's well-known quotes is: "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." And yet another is: "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off."