A Lifelong Commitment to Equality

Dear Friends
We have lost one of our greatest lights. Gloria was a unique leader who created and nurtured thousands of other leaders – not only in the United States but around the world. She famously said often, “We are linked not ranked.” That is what she taught us and that is how she lived her long and beautiful life.

I first met Gloria in 1992. I had just started the women’s rights organization Equality Now. I walked up to her after a press conference. I didn’t know her, and I didn’t know anyone who knew her. It didn’t matter. She was so gracious and she was so kind. She listened intently and then said simply, “That sounds like a good idea. How can I help?”

Gloria helped me and countless others in countless ways. She helped me start Frontline Women’s Fund in 2011, an offshoot of Equality Now, and she helped me start the ERA Coalition in 2015. She was a lifelong supporter of all these initiatives. She was always there for me – and everyone else I knew. She supported so many important organizations and gave each one her magic stardust to help it grow and flourish.

On her 85th birthday, Gloria met with sex trade survivors at a retreat at the Westglow spa, hosted by its then owner Bonnie Schaefer, a longtime friend of Gloria’s. We had travelled over the years with Gloria and others to Nepal, to Zambia, to India, in each country to meet with frontline women’s groups working to end sex trafficking and the sex trade. On Gloria’s birthday, Bonnie and her sister Marla and others helped launch the Gloria Steinem Equality Fund to End Sex Trafficking. The fund now supports groups around the world, from Japan to South Africa to Colombia. Many are led by survivors.

Gloria taught us all to listen and learn. She was a mother to so many of us and to the women’s movement as a whole.

We celebrated her 90th birthday with a roast to support the Gloria Steinem Equality Fund to End Sex Trafficking – as Gloria used to say, a great time for a good cause. Below is a link to some highlights of Gloria’s birthday roast that I want to share with you so you can hear Gloria laugh and see her beautiful smile and listen to the touching tributes from Lynn Nottage, Kathy Najimy, Carol Jenkins, Christine Lahti, Margot Wallstrom, Robin Morgan, Ashley Judd and others. Gloria will always be with us – in our hearts and minds. She will continue to inspire us forever and we will carry her torch forward as she wanted us to. While we mourn deeply let us also celebrate all the goodness and love that Gloria gave to all of us.

In Solidarity,

Jessica Neuwirth