Gloria Steinem’s Effect on Modern-Day History Essay

Gloria Steinem has had the greatest impact on modern day women in American society because, as an activist, she fought to achieve rights of equality. As a woman whose life was affected by society’s opinions and views of women, she was determined to change these standards. She set a goal to regulate women’s rights and have women’s role in society matter just as much as men’s. To accomplish said goals, â€Å"Gloria Steinem systemized organizations that would fight against discrimination towards any alienated group, organized speeches that covered strong topics such as women’s role in politics, women’s side of rape and pornography, and funded a company that would allow women at home to share their stories and speak for themselves† (Bauer, Garlena A, B2). Gloria Steinem has had the greatest impact of modern day society because without her assistance and provision women’s culture would diverse from what it was like in the 50s. Gloria Steinem accomplished the goals she set out to attain; she was able to change the outlook on women’s roles in America. In the 50s, American women were responsible to execute family traditions and follow the â€Å"rules† of motherhood – they didn’t really have much say in life decisions; but â€Å"Gloria Steinem changed that by getting politically active and being determined as an advocate for women’s rights of equality† (Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty, D1). â€Å"She was also nominated as a spokesperson for feminism and the leader of the enlargement of women’s rights of equality; she organized groups to fight discrimination against women such as NWPC and WAA† (Yanak, Ted and Pam, Cornelison, I1). All these actions led to an effective move towards the Women’s Liberation Movement. Steinem’s assistance towards women’s rights involved creating and editing Ms. Magazine, â€Å"the 1st feminist mass circulation magazine in the U.S. Influencing the Women’s Liberation Movement was one of her greater achievements† (Bauer, Garlena A, B2). â€Å"Others would include covering certain topics at protest that no other would discuss; such as pornography, rape, incest, abortion, poverty, lesbianism, politics, women’s health care and care for battered women† (Bauer, Garlena A, B2). All these add up to object to inequality for women in America. Overall, the battle to obtain equal rights alone is great success, but Gloria Steinem also attempted solving world problems as an activist. Not only did Gloria Steinem challenge critics and politicians by having her own say in topics about women’s rights, but â€Å"she also confronted them about resolving other complications in America and worldwide such as animal rights, the fight against genital mutilation, child abuse, and human trafficking† (Hepola, Sarah A, F3). Steinem had a lot on her plate, but she was determined to resolve as many problems and to help as many people as possible. In order to do so, she started ordering initial organizations to gain perspective and to prevent each cause from getting worse. â€Å"National Women’s Political Caucus, Equal Rights Amendment, Women’s Action Alliance, and National Black Feminist Organization†: were just some of the actions and initial organizations taken and funded my Gloria Steinem (Yanak, Ted and Pam, Cornelison, I1). With these organizations present, she was able to gain supporters; which would help her get make a point for women’s rights – the point being that she is not the only one who believed that women should be given choices like men, and that they should all have the same equivalence and impartiality. Her points were brought forth in every issue of ‘Ms. Magazine,’ where she would discuss all topics related to women’s rights and include reader’s opinions. â€Å"In every edition of ‘Ms. Magazine,’ Gloria Steinem would be sure to include readers’ personal stories† (Matthews, Glenna, E2). This was an important contribution on behalf of the readers’ part because their stories proved that women should have been entitled to their own opinion to those who weren’t activist or feminist and altered their opinions on women’s rights. Gloria Steinem also made sure to promote feminist cause – an example being reproduction rights – the articles would vary in focus but one thing that stayed the same was the fact that the articles spoke for all women who were expected more of. Gloria had different believes of what a household women should ensure. â€Å"As a feminist, Gloria Steinem criticized certain aspects of the traditional role of motherhood† (Charles Moritz, G2). She believed women should have been able to work if they would like to or marry who they loved, not who they were forced to marry because of economic or beneficial reasons. â€Å"Steinem wanted to assure that all women were able to fairly make their own choices† (Charles Moritz, G2); she knew that wasn’t an option because women were degraded only for the fact that they were women. â€Å"During years of working for a living, I have experienced much of the legal and social discrimination reserved for women in the country [†¦] all for the clearly sated sole reason that I am a woman.† (Hepola, Sarah A, F1). Within the supportive fight to gain equality for women, Gloria Steinem accomplished significant impressions on U.S. history. â€Å"She became a social activist, humanist and feminist† (Bauer, Garlena A, B1). Gloria Steinem was the target of much criticism, nevertheless, â€Å"she spent her life time committed to women’s liberation and remained committed to all political causes of the news and left a natural path into her career as a feminist to let other feminist peruse with what she started† ((Bauer, Garlena A, B1). Gloria Steinem has had the greatest impact on modern day women in American society because, as an activist, she fought to achieve rights of equality. As a woman whose life was affected by society’s opinions and views of women, she was determined to change these standards. She spoke for other women in the U.S. that were not able to do so because their opinions would not be valid since they were women. Since the understandings of women’s suffrage and the stance on women’s liberation and rights has changed from the 1950s to modern day believes, an assumption can be made that Gloria Steinem is the one who can be acknowledged for completing such task since she spent a life time committed to making a difference and making an effort to resolve the problem of discrimination.