Leading figures from politics, entertainment and wider society led glowing tributes to Gloria Steinem on Thursday, with Hillary Clinton hailing the American feminist icon who died at 92 at home in New York City as “one of the architects of the entire structure of women’s equality”.
Clinton, a former US secretary of state, presidential candidate and first lady, was among the first to jump in with praise early on Thursday when she appeared on the CBS Mornings TV show to share her respect and gratitude for Steinem.
Clinton urged younger generations to use Steinem as a role model in supporting each other in promoting the causes she championed.
“I’m hoping that young women realize that the fight is worth it,” she said. “It is exhilarating.”
Kamala Harris, the former US vice-president, hailed Steinem as a “trailblazing activist, organizer, and journalist – an icon in so many ways”, in a post on X.
“To know her as a person is to know someone who was kind, sharp, and witty. She was invested in young women and keeping the door open for the next generation of leaders,” Harris wrote.
“I will always be grateful for her encouragement and support in my campaign for the presidency. A campaign that was made possible, in no small part, because of her activism and so many other giants upon whose shoulders we stand.”
Others who eulogized Steinem included Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker, who called her “a fearless trailblazer who transformed the fight for equality in America”. Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, added her voice to call Steinem her “friend and mentor”, while the music icon Patti Smith referred to her as “the greatest”.
Broadcaster Oprah Winfrey called Steinem a “formidable reformer who shaped American thought and culture”. And Billie Jean King, the athlete who led the fight for equality for female tennis players, said in a Facebook post that “the world has lost a true giant and a dynamic voice”.
“She lit a torch many years ago. It is now our responsibility to keep it lifted into the future. May she rest in power,” King wrote.
Jill Biden, another former first lady, released a statement in which she said she and former US president Joe Biden “are holding Gloria’s loved ones in our hearts”.
Biden wrote: “Gloria Steinem understood that women’s equality begins with the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, health, and futures. For decades, she fought to make that freedom real for generations of women and girls.
“She spoke up when it was difficult, listened to those whose voices too often went unheard, and never stopped pushing our country forward. Her voice changed our country, and her courage will continue to inspire us to keep fighting for the freedoms she spent her life defending.”
Steinem had supported Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as the Democratic nominee running against Republican Donald Trump, which was ultimately unsuccessful as Trump prevailed in an election that would have given the United States its first female president. Clinton said on Thursday she was “heartsick” at news of the death of her feminist friend and ally.
“Everyone who not only knew her but followed her, was inspired and challenged by her,” she said.
“I think back to my first awareness of Gloria way back in the 1960s into the 70s, when all of a sudden this incredibly smart, beautiful, talented woman began talking about how women should have equal opportunity, how we should aim for the stars, be able to pursue our own dreams.
“I knew there were, back when I was a young woman, schools that wouldn’t take women, jobs that wouldn’t take women, scholarships that weren’t open to women. I lived it.
“But the lived experience became much more real and applicable to our entire society when Gloria began to point it out.”
Clinton noted Steinem’s distaste at what politics had become in recent years, and said she had “the most incredible conversation” with her during a visit to Steinem’s home last year.
“Even though we’re facing some challenges and pushback here in this country and around the world to women’s full participation and equality, Gloria was at heart an optimist,” she said. “Her activism was rooted in optimism, and that’s a moral choice, and she made it every day.”
Pelosi paid tribute in a post on X that said: “Gloria Steinem was a fearless trailblazer who transformed the fight for equality in America and inspired generations of women to know their power.
“Her voice, courage and relentless advocacy helped break down barriers and open doors once firmly closed to women. May it be a comfort to all of us who loved Gloria that her extraordinary legacy will live on in every generation that carries her fight forward.”
Markle posted her memories on Instagram. “Celebrating the life and legacy of my friend and mentor, and also grateful to know that in these last few weeks and days she knew exactly how loved and admired she was,” she wrote.
“My very favorite story about GLO is when she was out one day in NY, and a woman approached her in absolute awe and said she wanted to introduce her young daughter to her (though she was embarrassed to say the young girl may not know who she was).”
The post continued: “Gloria replied: ‘It doesn’t matter if she knows who I am. What matters is that she knows who SHE is’. Rest in peace, and rest in pride.”
Smith, who shared a similar path to Steinem as a cultural revolutionary icon emerging from New York in the 1960s and 70s, posted a brief tribute on Instagram. “This is the greatest Gloria. All are grateful for her revolutionary spirit; a lifetime of service,” she wrote.
The Oscar-winning actor Julianne Moore played Steinem in the 2020 biopic The Glorias. She said on Instagram: “The time I spent studying Gloria in order to play her was one of the most edifying of my life.
“Everything I watched, everything I read, everything I observed about her gave me a template for how I wanted to behave. Her honesty, her tolerance, her patience, and her insistence on humanism and inclusion as she moved through the world offers us all a moral roadmap.”
Others who paid tribute on Thursday also recalled Steinem’s trailblazing.
“Gloria was one of a kind. Genuine, generous, curious, thoughtful. She lived a staggering life and her passing is a staggering loss tempered only by the ferocity of her legacy,” Roxane Gay, the prominent social commentator and author of Bad Feminist, commented on the Instagram post announcing Steinem’s death.
Winfrey, on her own Oprah Daily website, said Steinem “challenged a culture that often told us who we could be, what we could do, and how much space we were allowed to take up, and then spent her life making that space wider for all of us”.
Alongside a picture of Winfrey and Steinem together, the TV host added: “She never wanted the movement to be about her. She understood that real change happens when one woman finds her voice and then uses it to help another woman find hers.”
