This is what 50 looks like

At a Phoenix luncheon 42 years ago, Steinem said it to hundreds of cheering women. Gloria Feldt heard a woman refusing to go invisible with age.

“"This is what 50 looks like"”

A magazine in West Texas

Years before they met, Feldt was a young wife and mother of three who stumbled on Ms. Magazine. Steinem had already changed her life without knowing it.

Permission, not prescription

Ms. showed Feldt she could build a life beyond wife and mother. It also told her she could choose those roles if she wanted them.

What that permission built

Feldt became president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, then founded Take The Lead to push for gender parity.

The hopeaholic

Steinem broke boundaries, but what Feldt remembers is the joy. She called herself a hopeaholic and kept that stance through a fight with no end date.

“"hopeaholic"”

She rode the controversy

A journalist who stepped into leading a movement, Steinem said she disliked controversy and used its energy anyway. She credited others constantly.

Coach class and a duffel bag

She flew coach with one small bag and a jacket to throw over black pants if an event called for it. In 2004 she knocked on doors canvassing voters.

The basement in midtown

In 2005 Steinem called Feldt to a meeting she can't place on a map. When Gloria Steinem asks you to a meeting, you go.

“"when Gloria Steinem asks you to come to a meeting, you tend to go"”

Hope through collective action

That year women's gains looked genuinely threatened. Steinem's answer to fear was not reassurance, it was getting people in a room together.

The Women's Media Center

Jane Fonda, Carol Jenkins, Pat Mitchell and Robin Morgan were there. The group formed to get women more power over which stories get told, and by whom.

Linked, not ranked

People keep asking who replaces Steinem as the feminist leader. She spent decades answering that: we are the leaders we have been looking for.

“"We are linked, not ranked."”