Gloria Steinem died recently, at age 92. The Washington Post, called her the “lodestar of the modern women’s movement.” As a freelance journalist, she wrote for prominent publications including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue.She became the face of second-wave feminism, advocating for equality in the workplace. She famously posed as a Playboy bunny to enter the New York Playboy Club and exposed the degrading treatment and low pay bunnies were subjected to. 

In contrast to her dowdy and brash predecessor, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem brought a dose of glamour to the movement with her straight, parted hair and miniskirts. Vogue called her “the most attractive activist in Women’s Lib.”

In 1971 she helped start Ms. Magazine and became its editor. One famous article listed prominent women, including Ms. Steinem herself, who publicly declared they’d had abortions. 

Ms. Steinem eschewed marriage and never had children. She once told an interviewer that aborting her baby “gave me life. I wouldn’t have been able to live my life otherwise.”

In 2000, at age 66, she did marry South African businessman, David Bale, the father of actor, Christian Bale. She insisted, her views about marriage hadn’t changed. “Marriage changed.” She said, “We spent 30 years in the United States changing marriage laws. If I had married when I was supposed to get married, I would have lost my name, my legal residence, my credit rating.” 

Feminists have attained key goals. Young women are succeeding professionally. American women of marriageable age are better educated and have better career prospects than men. 

Amidst this “progress,” young women report less enthusiasm for marriage than young men. And surveys show they’re less happy. 

Feminism has failed to effectively acknowledge the most important and immutable feature of womanhood: their biology, their capacity to be mothers. Unlike Gloria Steinem, most women, even ambitious women, want to be mothers.  

And this is what we must encourage if our society is to thrive and endure.