Gloria Steinem’s Last Memoir Reflects on Hope, Regret, and a Century of Change

Gloria Steinem, the iconic feminist writer and activist, passed away just weeks before the release of her final memoir, An Unexpected Life. She was 92. The book, which she completed before her death, gives no hint that it would be her last. In the introduction, she writes, “As I write this, I’m both older than I ever imagined I would become and happier than I ever imagined I could be.” She describes her friends as a chosen family and expresses shared hopes for a peaceful democracy worldwide. Steinem also notes that she planned to live to 100.

The memoir traces her journey from a 1940s Ohio childhood, where women were expected to marry and raise children, through her political awakening and rise in the second-wave feminist movement. It also highlights how young activists inspired her in return.

Among the book’s reflections, Steinem recalls a trip to India that shattered Western romantic illusions and introduced her to nonhierarchical thinking, which she found common in much of the world. She also shares a candid moment about biting author Terry Southern after he tried to kiss her, writing, “If you haven’t been trained to submit, you are like a cat; you just respond.”

Steinem admits regrets, including spending too much time on expectations rather than passions. She notes that she put off marriage until her forties, having grown up believing she would have to marry her identity rather than become it. On hope, she says, “Hope is a form of planning,” pointing to the leaps of consciousness achieved through the women’s movement over the past fifty years.

An Unexpected Life is scheduled for publication on September 22.