It was the fight for abortion rights that launched Gloria Steinem into feminism.
The idea that women couldn't reach equality without the ability to decide whether or when to have children was central to the feminist movement of the late 1960s, which Steinem came to embody until her death at age 92 on Wednesday.
The victories of that movement dramatically transformed American culture and family life, leading to a surge of women into the workforce, even
as advocates continue to fight against a persistent gender wage gap, sexual harassment and unequal representation at the top ranks of companies and political office.
But Steinem lived to see the rise of a powerful backlash against her vision of feminism, with reproductive rights, motherhood, childbearing and gender roles once again at the center of the country's culture wars.
In 2022, Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion; 13 states have since instituted total or near-total bans. Another four bar it after about six weeks of pregnancy, which is often before women realize they are pregnant.
Steinem called it a setback for democracy. But for Christian conservative activists, it was a huge victory and helped embolden a movement to encourage men and women to embrace traditional gender roles while often blaming feminism for the decline in birthrates, a rise in divorce and a devaluation of marriage and motherhood.
Through policies and rhetoric, Trump administration officials — including Vice President JD Vance — as well as influential conservative groups have launched a campaign to encourage young women to marry quickly, have more children and prioritize family over career.
“Feminism did a grave disservice to women, and men by extension, by promoting the idea that marriage and family are lesser pursuits and should be deprioritized,” said Delano Squires, a co-author of the Heritage Foundation's report, "Saving America by Saving the Family," which lamented that “the disruptions to American family life caused by bad public policy in the 1960s were exacerbated by cultural upheavals that radically changed social norms around sex, sexuality, marriage, children, and gender roles.”
The report, which among other ideas proposes that Congress create investment accounts with a $2,500 deposit for men and women who marry before the age of 30, was also co-written by Emma Waters, a Heritage Foundation analyst who has emerged as an influential voice for young conservative Christians criticizing what they see as a career-first culture created by feminism to the detriment of female happiness.
In a recent article, Waters took a dig at “Ms.” — both the title and the magazine founded by Steinem.
“Today, the most countercultural thing a 28-year-old woman can do is take her husband’s name and be open to the gift of motherhood,” she wrote.
Steinem herself never had children, a decision she said she never regretted while calling it a great choice for others. And she continued to fiercely advocate for reproductive choice as a cornerstone of women's empowerment.
Steinem pivoted into activism in her 30s after attending a meeting in 1969 where women discussed abortion rights and hearing stories that empowered her to speak up about the secret abortion she had in London at age 22.
At the time, abortion was illegal in most of the U.S. The Supreme Court had only recently guaranteed the right to birth control in the 1965 landmark Griswold v. Connecticut ruling.
Fewer than 50% of women were in the labor force back then, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was legal to fire a woman for becoming pregnant, remaining so until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. Banks routinely asked for a male co-signer when women applied for credit cards. There were only 11 women serving in Congress.
The landscape is drastically different today. About 58% of women 20 and older are in the labor force, and that number jumps to 77% for women at prime working ages between 25 and 54. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 — championed by the small number of women then serving in Congress — made it illegal to deny credit cards and loans to women on the basis of sex. There are now 152 women serving in Congress.
Many of those hard-fought rights, at least in principle, remain unassailable even among staunch conservatives. Squires, of the Heritage Foundation, said he would never question the right of women to own property, credit or be able to vote or work, even as he champions traditional gender roles.
Still, even the most radical ideas have been amplified by some in power. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for example, reposted a video about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote, sparking widespread outrage.
For those on the religious right, feminism upends the “godly” ideal of a father who leads and protects the household and encourages women to put their own needs before those of their husband and children, according to Beth Allison Barr, a women’s history professor at Baylor University. “It makes it directly oppositional: that to be a good Christian, you can’t be a feminist.”
Women's advocacy groups warn that both the curtailing of reproductive rights and the characterization of feminism as an attack on families are at their core attempts to disempower women and limit their freedom to choose their own life paths.
Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of the National Women's Law Center, said progressive proposals — such as expanded and longer paid family leave and better access to affordable child care — are in fact about championing families and making childrearing easier without pushing women to abandon careers and financial independence.
“We are really in a bigger cultural fight about who we are going to be as a nation and what women's role will be,” said Goss Graves.
Despite setbacks like the reversal of Roe v. Wade and unfinished business such as the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, Stanford University women’s history professor Estelle Freedman said feminism in the United States is so embedded in modern life that its momentum “may be unstoppable.”
The economy, for one thing, now depends on women continuing to work, she said.
The feminist movement since the early 19th century “has gone through periods of mobilization and gains, and periods of backlash and losses," but throughout "there has been continuous reorganization, rethinking to get stronger," Freedman said.
Steinem, Freedman said, lent the movement crucial continuity for more than half a century.
“The visibility that she’s given will help people not forget it’s a long haul. And it’s work that just has to continue," Freedman said.
In her final essay published Sept. 3 in The New Yorker, Steinem herself reflected on the setbacks with a note of optimism.
“As I write this, the world seems in a tailspin. Many feel that all the progress we’ve made is being reversed. When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role as an older person is to remind us how far we have come," she wrote. "Because of this movement, most people in the world have now seen women who are astronauts, union organizers and farmers, liberators and peacemakers.” ___
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