Gloria Steinem Net Worth

What is Gloria Steinem's Net Worth?

Gloria Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and activist who has a net worth of $20 million. Gloria Steinem is known for being a pioneering figure in the second wave of feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and throughout the 70s. Among her many notable activities, she co-founded Ms. magazine, the National Women's Political Caucus, the Women's Action Alliance, and the Women's Media Center. Later in her career, Steinem began traveling internationally as a lecturer and media spokesperson for issues of gender and sexual equality. She has won many awards including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California's Bill of Rights Award, American Humanist Association's 2012 Humanist of the Y ear, National Women's Hall of Fame inductee, New York Women's Foundation's Century Award, Parenting magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award, United Nations' Society of Writers Award, and Veteran Feminists of American's medal of honor.

Early Life and Education

Gloria Steinem was born on March 25, 1934 in Toledo, Ohio to Presbyterian mother Ruth and Jewish father Leo. She is of German, Scottish, and Polish descent. The family lived and traveled around in a trailer, from which Leo sold antiques. Meanwhile, Ruth, who had suffered a nervous breakdown, spent long stretches of time in and out of sanatoriums. When Steinem was ten, her parents divorced, and she subsequently lived with her mother. As an adolescent, she went to Waite High School in Toledo before moving to Washington, DC to attend and ultimately graduate from Western High School. Steinem subsequently went to Smith College in Massachusetts.

Career Beginnings

In the late 50s, Steinem began her career as director of the Independent Research Service, a CIA-funded organization. She entered the field of journalism not long after that, becoming the first employee of Help! magazine in 1960. Steinem went on to pen an influential article on contraception in Esquire magazine in 1962. The year after that, she wrote for Show magazine and served as a Playboy Bunny at the New York Playboy Club. Over the ensuing years, Steinem wrote for Cosmopolitan magazine and the satirical television show "That Was the Week That Was."

Gloria Steinem Wearing Playboy Bunny Costume/via Getty Images

Rise to Fame

Steinem earned her greatest recognition yet when she began writing for the newly founded New York magazine in the late 60s. For the publication, she penned the article "After Black Power, Women's Liberation," which garnered her national attention and established her as a leading figure in the second wave of feminism. Steinem gained further recognition in 1971 as a co-founder of the feminist magazine Ms., which sold out all 300,000 of its test copies in just eight days. Also in 1971, she co-founded the feminist organization the Women's Action Alliance, which sought to support feminist activists and advance feminist causes, and was among the over 300 women to co-found the National Women's Political Caucus.

Further Activism

In 1977, Steinem became an associate of the non-profit publishing organization the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press. She continued to be heavily involved with non-profit groups over the years. In 1992, she co-founded Choice USA, a national youth-led reproductive rights and justice organization. The group was renamed Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, or URGE, in 2014. Also in the early 90s, Steinem co-produced and narrated the Emmy-winning HBO television documentary "Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories." Later, in the 2010s, she began lecturing at various venues around the world. Steinem also partook in the 2015 International Women's Day for Disarmament, joining 10,000 Korean women stationed on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone to urge an official end to the Korean War and the reunification of riven families.

Presidential Campaign Involvement

In addition to her activism, Steinem has been involved in presidential campaigns going back to her support of Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. In 1968, she worked for George McGovern's presidential campaign in various capacities, including as a fundraiser, lobbyist, and press secretary. Later, in 2008, Steinem endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, and endorsed her again when she became the Democratic candidate in 2016.

Getty Images

In the Media

Due to her trailblazing life and career, Steinem has been the subject of many books, television series, and films. Biographies written about her have included Carolyn Heilbrun's "Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem"; Sydney Ladensohn Stern's "Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique"; and Sarah Fabiny's "Who is Gloria Steinem?" She is also the subject of the documentary film "Gloria: In Her Own Words," the stage play "Gloria: A Life," and the biographical film "The Glorias," in which she's portrayed by four different actresses at various ages. In other media portrayals, Steinem was played by Rose Byrne in the FX miniseries "Mrs. America."

Personal Life

In the late 1980s and into the 90s, Steinem was in a romantic relationship with media magnate Mortimer Zuckerman. Later, in 2000, she married entrepreneur David Bale, the father of actor Christian Bale. The couple remained together until David Bale's passing in late 2003.

In 2015, Steinem released her memoir "My Life on the Road." The book is dedicated to Dr. John Sharpe, the physician who illegally performed her abortion in 1957.

Real Estate

Since 1966, Steinem has owned property in a historic brownstone building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She actually has lived in the building since the 1960s. She rented there with a roommate for the first time in 1966. Today she owns the first three floors of the building, acquiring her most recent unit in June 2017 for $1.1 million. She bought her first unit in 1996 for $160,000. Prior to purchasing the third unit, she used her two units as a large living space. It's believed that the third unit is used as an office.