A gender-equal society would be one where the word ‘gender’ does not exist: where everyone can be themselves. — Gloria Steinem

Sometimes in life, we have to step back to appraise our lives. This is our mental spring cleaning. We clear the cobwebs, dust the piano, review our bookshelves and closets. We discover how much our lives have changed, then decide what to discard and how to rearrange the furniture of our inner self to gain a new perspective.

We like to think our lives run on a linear course. In actuality, life is both cyclic and linear. We move forward in loops. The change of seasons illustrates this. No two days are alike, and each season, though repeated annually, is different from the previous year’s seasonal offering. History doesn’t so much repeat itself as it does mirror another era. Our current time is mirroring the pre-Women’s Movement.

These were my thoughts while reading Gloria Steinem’s obituary and thinking about her publications. Ms. Steinem was a “journalist, columnist, essayist, and author,’ as Katharine Q. Seelye writes in her obituary for The New York Times.   https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/us/politics/gloria-steinem-dead.htm  Add to that list: feminist organizer and lecturer.

When we started, there was not even a term for sexual harassment. It was just called life. — Gloria Steinem

 Gloria Steinem advocated for human rights. Her concerns extended to racism, violence against women, child abuse, non-violent alternatives to violence, equal rights, and earnings equity for women were a few of the issues she addressed with empathy and audacity. The filmmaker Julie Taymor summarizes this when she says, “It (Ms. Steinem’s life) was about relationships between men and women, how to live in an equal society.”    

She was introspective and understood her inner fears and how the instability, neglect, and trauma of her childhood, lasting into her 30s, shaped her life and values. There were obstacles, both personal and societal, to overcome, particularly the gender biases/discrimination (sexism) that permeated and continue to pervade our society, indeed, other societies, as well. Behind the tinted aviator glasses were eyes that looked at the world with hope. Beneath the long hair, later shortened, was an intellectual refusing to accept defeat. When confronted with setbacks, Ms. Steinem believed the proper response was to act. Despite the public persona, friends and colleagues of Gloria Steinem knew her humility. She accepted her public role with the awareness that, “Without me, there would still be a women’s movement.”

A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space. — Gloria Steinem

I reject the application of the word “iconic” to those who are admired. To say a person is “iconic” is to carve them into a marble statue, reducing them to an image. They are denied their humanness, those qualities of heart and soul. Gloria Steinem was a complex and vulnerable woman. Instead of thinking of her as an iconic image of the past, even those who disagreed with her on issues like abortion should do their spring cleaning, rearrange the furniture,  contemplate alone, then in a circle with others to ask, “What can I learn from this person to improve my life and the lives of others to create a more equal and just society and world?” Admiration, by itself, is insufficient without action for change.

Without self-esteem, the only change is an exchange of masters; with it, there is no need for masters. —Gloria Steinem

Feminism isn’t a dirty word. Rather, it is about self-respect, being true to yourself, and respecting the dignity of others. Too often we erroneously feel (without reasoning) that we have to be apologetic for who we are as a person, whether as a woman, a man, our race, creed, or socio-economic status. We cannot always, nor should we, accept what society expects of us if we are to live honestly and fully. Each of us will always have our critics—those who undermine our self-esteem. Swimming against the school of fish is difficult, painful, and the wounds leave scars. However, Ms. Steinem reminds us what we can accomplish with pain when we turn outward toward others with compassion. We can become “an entrepreneur of social change.”

The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving. — Gloria Steinem

Photo image: Santa Clara University Digital Exhibits

In Praise of “an entrepreneur of social change” ©2026 Charles van Heck