{"id":1692430,"date":"2026-09-16T11:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1692430"},"modified":"2026-09-16T11:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:26:27","slug":"gloria-steinem-legacy-leadership-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2026\/09\/gloria-steinem-legacy-leadership-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Gloria Steinem Taught Us How to Walk Forward Without Her"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"American
The most enduring lesson from Gloria Steinem\u2019s life may be how deliberately she built a movement that could keep moving without her. Photo by Barbara Alper\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The candles on the cake were for Gloria Steinem’s 91st birthday. No doubt she had dozens of birthday celebrations that year. But in this photo, we were sitting in her brownstone on the Upper East Side, where she lived for 60 years. There\u2019s a lot to learn about her leadership style by looking at that brownstone and what happened inside it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gloria held her talking circles in the salon where there were more cushions on the ground than chairs. In Gloria\u2019s world, there was always room for one more voice. Loose, ever-expanding circles were her theory of change. There was no head of the table. Because of that, there also couldn\u2019t be one single point of failure. Gloria, even in the way she organized her living room, treated listening not as a courtesy, but as the first act of organizing. She said she learned more on listening tours than on lecture tours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many ideas and organizations were hatched on those cushions, from Ms. magazine to the National Women’s Political Caucus, almost always with partners. Ms. began with Gloria and Dorothy Pitman Hughes, with Patricia Carbine and Letty Cottin Pogrebin. The National Women\u2019s Political Caucus was founded with Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan and Fannie Lou Hamer, among others. Nearly every organization she created had co-founders. Shared mastheads were her signature move. Many hands and minds shaped the ideas that turned into institutions from day one. She was quick to share the limelight with others and wouldn\u2019t allow the media to call her the leader of women\u2019s rights. She thought of herself as an organizer above all else.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gloria