Gloria Steinem (1934–2026): What we learnt from her 2015 memoir, ‘My Life on the Road’

This article was originally published on The Conversation in 2018.

Gloria Steinem’s first book in more than a decade hit bookstores a couple of weeks ago. My Life on the Road proffers autobiographical snippets from what the famed feminist activist, journalist and author claims is the “most important, longest-running, yet least visible part of my life” – her nomadic existence on the road.

Steinem maintains that her intentions in relaying these experiences are manifold. Clearly, she wants to acquaint the public with this lesser-known facet of her itinerant life, but she also declares that she wants to “encourage you to spend some time on the road, too”; for us all “to share stories”; and “to open up the road – literally” given that “so far its been overwhelmingly masculine turf”.

But this book is also about setting the record straight. Steinem – who played a pivotal role in popularising second-wave feminism in 1970s America – is now a stately 81. This non-linear autobiography, then, is also an attempt to shore up her legacy in the so-called post-feminist age.

Steinem never overtly admits this, of course. But My Life on the Road consistently labours to combat and correct controversial aspects of the Steinem legend. The first concerns the implications of her unusually good...

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