Cliff’s Note:
You’ve already read a Gloria Steinem obituary. Likely three. Every one was free and every one told you the same true things—Ms. magazine, the Playboy Club, fifty years on the road, the glasses, hair. This isn’t that.
Below the line, I walk you thru the state of the Equal Rights Amendment: why 38 states ratified it and it still isn’t law. How a 1921 Supreme Court decision did this. What Trump’s DOJ did in 2020, and what Biden’s did in 2022 to partially undo that. And the specific moves to put it in the Constitution starting the day a new Congress is sworn in.
This took real time to assemble and it’s the part I can’t give away, b/c it’s funded by those who pay. We have no billionaires. There is me, a research folder, and you.
If you want to mourn her, the free half of this is for you and I mean every word of it.
If you want to learn how to finish the job she started, come inside.
—Cliff
by Cliff Schecter
In 2026, the late Gloria Steinem was interviewed as part of a New York Times piece on what it was like to turn 80. She’d passed the barrier a decade earlier. But for some reason, because President Donald Trump was reaching 80 years of infesting our country with his unique combination of the seven deadly sins, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and piss cotton candy hair (thank you Penn Jillette!), the paper of broken record asked some famous folks their thoughts on the subject.
Steinem replied that the worst part passing the 80 year threshold was "losing people you love." But when they inquired if she had advice for Trump, specifically, she quickly remarked: "Resign." And that, in a nutshell, was Gloria Steinem.
I grew up in a feminist household staunchly in favor of equal rights, including abortion rights, so women could participate equally in society. I heard this refrain from my mom, a lifelong liberal Democrat, from an early age. My late father, a Rockefeller Republican who subscribed to most of her politics—and by the time he passed in 2013, a decade record as a registered independent who voted Democratic—would nod along in agreement.
Specifically, I’d often hear about the necessity of passing the Equal Rights Amendment.
I thought about this, as I was saddened this past Wednesday upon hearing this giant of our politics and culture, Steinem, had passed away at age 92. I was somewhat consoled that she’d lived such a full life. Score one for this refutation of fellow New Yorker Billy Joel’s take that “Only The Good Die Young.” I was also comforted that Steinem had left such a lasting legacy. Truly a life we’d all be lucky to enjoy a fraction of during our time on Earth.
What she did honored us. So now it’s our turn to honor her by finishing her job.
I am speaking of passing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as soon as humanly possible. And it’s not as far away as you think.
