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JaneSwifty (talk | contribs) Did the early life section get deleted? If so why? |
JaneSwifty (talk | contribs) Looks like accidental deletion so I will put it back |
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Steinem currently travels internationally as an organizer and lecturer, and is a media spokeswoman on issues of equality.<ref name="Gloriasteinem.com"/>
==Early life==
Steinem was born on March 25, 1934 in [[Toledo, Ohio]],<ref name=history>{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/gloria-steinem|title=Gloria Steinem|publisher=historynet.com|date= |accessdate=November 8, 2014}}</ref> the daughter of Ruth (née Nuneviller) and Leo Steinem. Her mother was a [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] of mostly German (including [[Prussia]]n), and some Scottish, descent.<ref>[https://books.google.ca/books?id=hvSgZEdAUiIC&pg=PT18&dq=%22The+temptation+to+discover+the+heritage%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvhP62jZDLAhUMx4MKHZvODzEQ6AEIEzAA]</ref><ref name="roots">''[[Finding Your Roots]]'', February 23, 2016, PBS</ref> Her father was [[Jewish]], the son of immigrants from [[Kingdom of Württemberg|Württemberg]], Germany and [[Radziejów]], Poland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/feminism/_html/JWA067.htm |title=Gloria Steinem |publisher=Jewish Women's Archive|date= |accessdate=November 8, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wargs.com/other/steinem.html |title=Ancestry of Gloria Steinem |publisher=Wargs.com |date= |accessdate=2012-07-20}}</ref><ref name="roots">''[[Finding Your Roots]]'', February 23, 2016, PBS</ref><ref>http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/blog/gloria-steinems-interactive-family-tree/</ref> Her paternal grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was chairwoman of the educational committee of the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]], a delegate to the 1908 [[International Council of Women]], and the first woman to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education, as well as a leader in the movement for vocational education.<ref name=jwa>{{cite web|first=Letty Cottin |last=Pogrebin|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/steinem-gloria|title=Gloria Steinem |publisher=Jewish Women's Archive |date=March 20, 2009 |accessdate=2012-07-20}}</ref> Pauline also rescued many members of her family from the [[Holocaust]].<ref name=jwa/>
The Steinems lived and traveled about in the trailer from which Leo carried out his trade as a traveling antiques dealer.<ref name=jwa/> Before Steinem was born, her mother Ruth, then aged 34, had a "nervous breakdown" that left her an invalid, trapped in delusional fantasies that occasionally turned violent.<ref name="Steinem 1983 140–142">{{cite book|last=Steinem|first=Gloria|title=Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions|publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston|year=1983|isbn=978-0-03-063236-5|pages=140–142}}</ref> She changed "from an energetic, fun-loving, book-loving" woman into "someone who was afraid to be alone, who could not hang on to reality long enough to hold a job, and who could rarely concentrate enough to read a book."<ref name="Steinem 1983 140–142"/> Ruth spent long periods in and out of sanatoriums for the mentally ill.<ref name="Steinem 1983 140–142"/> Steinem was ten years old when her parents finally separated in 1944.<ref name="Steinem 1983 140–142"/> Her father went to California to find work, while she and her mother continued to live together in Toledo.<ref name="Steinem 1983 140–142"/>
While her parents divorced as a result of her mother's illness, Steinem did not attribute it to a result of chauvinism on the father's part, and she claims to have "understood and never blamed him for the breakup."<ref>Marcello, Patricia. ''Gloria Steinem: A Biography.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. p. 20.</ref> Nevertheless, the impact of these events had a formative effect on her personality: while her father, a traveling salesman, had never provided much financial stability to the family, his exit aggravated their situation.<ref name="Marcello, Patricia 2004">Marcello, Patricia. ''Gloria Steinem: A Biography.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.</ref> Steinem concluded that her mother's inability to hold on to a job was evidence of general hostility towards working women.<ref name="Marcello, Patricia 2004"/> She also concluded that the general apathy of doctors towards her mother emerged from a similar anti-woman animus.<ref name="Marcello, Patricia 2004"/> Years later, Steinem described her mother's experiences as having been pivotal to her understanding of social injustices.<ref name="OutrageousActs">{{Cite book
| last = Steinem
| first = Gloria
| title = Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
| publisher = Henry Holt & Co.
| year = 1984
| location = New York
|edition = 1
| isbn = }}</ref>{{rp|129–138}} These perspectives convinced Steinem that women lacked [[social equality|social]] and [[egalitarianism|political equality]].<ref name="OutrageousActs"/>
Steinem attended [[Waite High School (Toledo, Ohio)|Waite High School]] in Toledo and Western High School in Washington, D.C., graduating from the latter.<ref name=Toledo>{{cite web|url=http://www.toledofreepress.com/2008/05/02/classmates-remember-steinems-toledo-days/|title=Classmates remember Steinem's Toledo days|publisher=Toledo Free Press|date= |accessdate=November 8, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://westernhighschool-dc.org/steinem_g.html|title=Gloria Steinem class of 1952|publisher=Western High School|date= |accessdate=November 8, 2014}}</ref> She then attended [[Smith College]],<ref name="BiographyCom">{{cite web
| title = Gloria Steinem
| publisher = Biography.com
| url = http://www.biography.com/people/gloria-steinem-9493491#synopsis
| accessdate = June 1, 2010}}</ref> an institution with which she continues to remain engaged, and from which she graduated as a member of [[Phi Beta Kappa]]{{what?|date=March 2016}}.<ref name="Gloriasteinem.com"/> In the late 1950s, Steinem spent two years in India as a Chester Bowles Asian Fellow.<ref name=Bird>{{cite book|last=Bird|first=Kai|title=The Chairman: John J. McCloy, the making of the American establishment|year=1992|publisher=Simon & Schuster|pages=483–484}}</ref> After returning to the U.S., she served as director of the Independent Research Service, an organization funded in secret by a donor that turned out to be the [[CIA]].<ref name=CIA>{{cite news|title=C.I.A. Subsidized Festival Trips; Hundreds of Students Were Sent to World Gatherings|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20C1FFD3B5F137A93C3AB1789D85F438685F9&scp=2&sq=Gloria+Steinem+CIA&st=p|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 21, 1967}}</ref> She worked to send non-Communist American students to the 1959 [[World Youth Festival]].<ref name="CIA"/> In 1960, she was hired by [[Warren Publishing]] as the first employee of ''[[Help! (magazine)|Help!]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web
| last = Cooke
| first = Jon
| authorlink = Jon B. Cooke
| title = Wrightson's Warren Days
| publisher = [[TwoMorrows]]
| url = http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/04warren.html
| accessdate = June 1, 2010}}</ref>
==Journalism career==
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