ABSTRACT
In the late 1960s, Gloria Steinem dedicated to the cause of feminism her enormous energy, unending concern with social justice, society connections, and a fashionable mystique that had grown up around her, and in so doing, made the women's movement much more inclusive and activist in nature than it had been. In 1967, Steinem traveled to Washington, D.C., to join the women's strike for peace, an anti-Vietnam War protest, and befriended Bella Abzug, a longtime feminist and political activist. She helped support the 1969 United Farm Workers strike and, after 1970, pushed for the Equal Rights Amendment. Gloria Steinem opened the American women's movement to a very wide constituency, expanding American feminism to encompass many political issues related to women. Steinem made the community of women larger by validating all issues—including sexual preference, economic status, and race—that made up women's identities.
