“The Women Our Parents Warned Us Against” 

Gloria Steinem’s Unfinished Revolution 

What’s going on: The pioneering feminist Gloria Steinem — a journalist, activist, author, and Ms. magazine cofounder — passed away this week at 92. The personification of second-wave feminism, Steinem's accolades are numerous. She tackled cultural and institutional inequalities, from equal pay to reproductive rights. She helped create rape crisis centers and shelters for those experiencing domestic violence. “When we started, there was not even a term for sexual harassment — it was just called life,” Steinem said. She raised awareness at a time when women weren’t legally allowed to own credit cards or apply for mortgages without their husbands’ permission. She advocated for intersectionality, serving as treasurer of the legal defense fund for revolutionary Black feminist Angela Davis. She also wasn’t afraid to reevaluate her views with the times. She was a staunch advocate for abortion, even dedicating her 2015 memoir My Life on the Road to the doctor who helped her obtain one before Roe v. Wade. And she wore the hell out of those aviators.

Good girls really do revolt: Steinem lived through the Civil Rights Movement and the real-life Mad Men era. Yet, despite all her progress, she found herself fighting some of the same battles in recent years that she did in the '60s. She managed to keep her wit, spunk, and perseverance, providing a blueprint for other women upset with the status quo. In 2022, when it became apparent Roe would be overturned, she told NPR that making change is like growing a tree. “Too often, we think the tree grows from the top, from Congress. Trees grow from the bottom,” she said. That meant grassroots organizing, donations, and women's votes, work that Steinem helped make possible and work that's sure to continue after her death. As she’d surely remind us at a time like this: “Hope is a form of planning.”

Related: Gloria Steinem’s 1987 Tribute to Dolly Parton Is Making Us Emotional All Over Again (Ms.)