Gloria Steinem Ms. magazine began in 1971 as a national platform for the feminist movement, pairing trailblazing journalism with a mass audience. Its voice galvanized readers and unsettled many advertisers, according to contemporaneous accounts and later analyses.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Among Gloria Steinem’s notable accomplishments was launching Ms. magazine. The writer and activist died last week at 92. For many, she came to embody feminism over decades, in part through that publication, as reporter Jennifer Ludden recounts.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: The debut of Ms. drew national attention. In 1972, public radio coverage noted its arrival on newsstands and emphasized that it was created, edited, and visually produced by women, with Steinem at the helm.
Commentators at the time explained the title’s significance, describing “Ms.” as a neutral honorific that, for women, paralleled the longstanding courtesy accorded to men regardless of marital status.
Gloria Steinem Ms. magazine and the rise of feminist journalism
Early issues featured pieces that broke from conventional women’s magazines. Articles included “The Housewife’s Moment of Truth,” which highlighted everyday situations revealing second-class treatment, as well as practical guidance on starting a daycare center.
Resource lists pointed readers to groups offering legal aid, information on abortion, and support for working women. Steinem said she aimed to move beyond narrow depictions of women as only wives or mothers, envisioning a publication that functioned like a consciousness-raising companion that “tells the truth” about readers’ lives.
AMY FARRELL: I don’t think we can underestimate how important Ms. was in terms of popularizing feminism.
LUDDEN: Amy Farrell, a Dickinson College professor and author of the 1998 study “Yours in Sisterhood,” said that before Ms., many of the issues it spotlighted appeared mainly in small underground outlets. Ms., by contrast, competed for space in mainstream venues like grocery store racks, asserting that feminist journalism belonged in public view.
Gloria Steinem Ms. magazine confronted taboos
LUDDEN: The magazine pushed boundaries in covering sexual harassment at a time when pop culture often treated it as a joke, such as a boss chasing a secretary in cartoons. Readers wrote intimate letters, confiding experiences of domestic violence and mistreatment at work, and said the magazine made them feel less isolated and part of a broader movement.
Yet the loyalty of readers did not always translate to advertising support, noted writer Maggie Doherty, who examined the magazine’s legacy in an essay for The Yale Review. She said Ms. navigated persistent friction between editorial priorities and financial backers as it published on welfare policy, lesbian life, and stories by and about Black women.
Such coverage was often labeled controversial for a magazine aiming for commercial viability. The backlash sometimes turned public.
Southern newsstand operators boycotted an issue featuring a Black woman on the cover. In 1980, Revlon withdrew from a contract after Ms. ran a cover image of Soviet women without makeup.
Steinem later recounted advertiser pressures, including demands to avoid topics such as gun control and abortion, reflecting a broader expectation that women’s magazines remain apolitical and upbeat. In 1990, the publication restructured as a smaller nonprofit and removed commercial advertising, a model it continues to follow.
Doherty, who grew up in the 1990s, said she once assumed the movement’s central battles were largely settled. The rollback of Roe v. Wade and the resurgence of misogynistic rhetoric, she added, underscore the obstacles Ms. faced and the persistence required to keep such a platform alive.
Steinem’s endurance, she said, remains a source of resolve not to lose hope. Jennifer Ludden reported this story.