Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. This is the story at the heart of My Life on the Road.

It’s a truism, for instance, that a few clothes are more shocking than none. But for women especially, bras, panties, bathing suits, and other stereotypical gear are visual reminders of a commercial, idealized feminine image that our real and diverse female bodies can’t possibly fit. Without those visual references, however, each individual woman’s body can be accepted on its own terms. We stop being comparatives. We begin to be unique.After spending a few days at a spa in the company of 90 or so women, Gloria Steinem wrote In Praise of Women’s Bodies, a short but powerful essay that’s part ode and part treatise and fully in awe of the female form, in all its unique variety. In Praise of Women’s Bodies was originally published in Ms., April 1982. Cover design by Adil Dara.

A bestselling first collection of humorous and insightful essays by a luminary of the women's liberation movementThese essays from Gloria Steinem's first three decades of work offer a portrait of a woman who was not only one of the savviest leaders of the women's liberation movement, but also a profoundly humane thinker with a wide-ranging intellect and irresistible wit. In "If Men Could Menstruate," Steinem engages readers in a flight of imagination as incisive as it is hilarious. She offers first-person journalism in her underground expos"e" "I Was a Playboy Bunny," provides heartbreaking memoir in the story of her mother's struggles in "Ruth's Song," and stakes important positions in feminist theory in "Erotica vs. Pornography." This is Steinem at her most provocative--and most compassionate.