Gloria Steinem, who became a face of the women’s liberation movement in the US, has died, aged 92, her foundation says.
In a post on Instagram, it said she “passed away peacefully” at her home in New York City, “surrounded by many who loved her”.
Steinem, who was a writer and magazine editor, co-founded the Women’s Action Alliance, a group dedicated to fighting sexism, more than 50 years ago.
She started her career as a journalist in New York in the 1970s and went on to co-found Ms. magazine, one of the first publications to focus on other women’s issues than housekeeping and beauty.
During the 1970s, Steinem was a main voice campaigning for women’s reproductive rights, among other causes.
She herself obtained an illegal abortion in London when she was 22 years old, and years later celebrated the US Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in the case of Roe v Wade, which granted women the constitutional right to abortion. Nearly half a century later she witnessed the reversal of this decision.
She also spoke out for the legalisation of same-sex marriage, as well as equal rights and pay for women, and protested against the death penalty and female genital mutilation.
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