How Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine Transformed the Publishing Industry

When Gloria Steinem started Ms.magazine in 1971, most women’s magazines concentrated on how to keep a house and how to attract a husband.

Her publication took a very different focus: liberation.The magazine, the first owned and operated by women, made the discussion of issues like abortion, domestic violence and equality unavoidable — and revolutionized a generation of women’s writers and publishers.“The one element that is the foundation of this magazine and makes it different from others is that it simply considers that women are human beings,” Ms.Steinem said of Ms.

magazine in a 1973 BBC interview.“That doesn’t sound very revolutionary, but it is, because the other magazines are still arguing about it.”In some ways, the publishing world is still arguing about exactly what it means to be a women’s magazine.

Legacy publications like Glamour, Marie Claire and Teen Vogue have either ended their print runs or withered, while feminist blogs like The Hairpin and Feministing have shuttered.But the DNA of Ms.magazine inspired a new generation of outlets, said Emily Ramshaw, the chief executive of the nonprofit newsroom The 19th, which focuses on women and politics.Ms.

Steinem “spent her life and career insisting that women were not a niche audience, that our experiences were not side dishes to the main event and that gender-based journalism could be both rigorous and unapologetic,” Ms.Ramshaw said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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