Gloria Steinem, born in 1934, was part of the Silent Generation. And while she threw herself wholeheartedly into Second-Wave feminism, her legacy includes the pink-haired, septum ringed, 4th-wave wokeists from Code Pink to the pink-shirted mob supporting Lindsay Clancy.

“Pioneer” of the 1960’s feminist movement may be true, but it certainly wasn’t an unqualified success, not when you look at what the movement tied themselves to and how people like Steinem reacted to women who dissented from her political and policy stances.

Steinem’s passing marked the end of a remarkable 60-year career devoted to women’s rights, which included authoring countless articles and nearly a dozen books, including “A Bunny’s Tale” exposing her time as a Playboy bunny.

Steinem also overturned the public’s notion of who a feminist was – as she defied the cliche of an angry, anti-man woman and showed the world style and sharp wit, while maintaining a dazzling social life.

As is true of so many Affluent White Female Liberals, rebellion and activism is their reason to get up in the morning and work the power brunch at whatever tony establishment of foo-foo food is popular (and outrageously expensive) at the time.

And throughout Steinem’s career, she was the embodiment of Second-wave feminism’s motto:

The personal is political

For Gloria, no woman is allowed a personal life. All choices a woman makes either uphold The Patriarchy or rebel against it. She put that theme to writing with her book of essays in 1983’s Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. It was during th 70s into 80s that Steinem was particularly busy supporting the ERA, founded Ms. Magazine, showed up at demonstrations for abortion and tied “women’s liberation” with “black power.”

And how did Gloria view women who were more conservative? Who dissented from her Leftwing-political lens of looking at society? In Gloria’s eyes, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Kay Bailey Hutchenson, and Sarah Palin were “female impersonators” and she said it often about women who didn’t toe the Left Feminist ideology. For Steinem, a conservative woman only looked female but was supporting The Patriarchy.

Today we see the whole idea of “woman” not just as a political identification, but as a category of identity open even to males.

Steinem also rejected any limit on, or to, abortion, consistently maintaining – even after Dobbs – that only a woman’s own decision counted. She opposed parental consent, wanted abortions covered under Medicaid, and described any restriction or limitation on abortion on demand as “nationalizing women’s bodies”. Note:She, herself, had an abortion at 22 years old in order not to be “trapped” into marriage and to be free to pursue a career.

And this is where we are today

The Evolution of Left-Wing Feminism in the Era of Lindsay Clancy
Spoiler alert: Give them an inch, they will take a foot—and they will never stop. https://t.co/mcrYorSfvD pic.twitter.com/9qirIQNyQd

— Skscartoon (@skscartoon) September 1, 2026

Gloria Steinem may have convinced herself she was just a champion of equality for women. But downstream of burnt bras are things that hurt women, not uplift them.

featured image, cropped, from WikiCommons, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.