Gloria Steinem spent her life challenging barriers, elevating women’s voices, and expanding what generations believed was possible. Her courage, conviction, and advocacy helped transform the movement for women’s equality and in the process, changed our society in profound and lasting ways.
Gloria brought women into spaces that had too often excluded them and challenged assumptions about who gets to speak, who gets heard, and who has the power to create change. Throughout her life, she worked to widen that circle. She also understood something fundamental: meaningful change requires both the courage to speak out and the willingness to listen.
As we reflect on Gloria’s extraordinary legacy, there is much to learn not only from what she fought for, but from how she created change.
For Gloria, the circle was more than a metaphor. It was a practice. She regularly hosted what she called “Talking Circles”— an ancient practice of gathering people in a circle to speak and listen as a tool for organizing and movement-building. She brought together “a circle of diverse people” that was representative enough to include different experiences, yet intimate enough that “everyone can speak and everyone can listen.”
In 2022, we had the extraordinary opportunity to experience one ourselves. Along with our Arrive & Thrive co-author Janet Foutty, we were invited to Gloria’s New York City home for a Talking Circle. We came together across generations and experiences, each with something to contribute and something to learn. Our conversation, along with others, was recorded as part of an effort to preserve Gloria’s ideas and reflections alongside those of women working to carry the movement forward.
In many ways, that circle reflected how Gloria approached advocacy throughout her life. As a journalist and co-founder of Ms. magazine, she shined a spotlight on often-overlooked women’s issues. As an organizer and activist, she brought people together around the fight for greater equality. And across generations, she made room for new voices, perspectives, and ideas.
We are grateful that her circle also extended to Simmons, and for the deep and enduring connection she shared with our institution that spanned more than half a century. In 1973, she delivered our Commencement address and received an honorary Doctor of Human Justice degree. In 1974, she helped celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Simmons Graduate School of Management. In 2013, she returned to campus to continue a conversation with the Simmons community that had begun decades earlier. And in 2024, she joined us once again at the Simmons Leadership Conference. At each moment, she did more than share her perspective; she invited a new generation into the conversation and challenged them to consider how they would carry the work forward.
During a conversation with Trevor Noah at the 2024 conference, Gloria emphasized the importance of allies—including men—who are willing to listen, challenge assumptions, and help change the systems that limit opportunity. She also reminded us of another essential ingredient for change: hope.
“Hope is a form of planning,” she said.
For Gloria, hope was never passive. It meant envisioning the world as it could be and then doing the hard work to move us closer to it. That message feels especially resonant today. We have made extraordinary progress over the past fifty years, but that progress is neither complete nor guaranteed.
Now it is our responsibility to keep that circle growing – by listening, speaking loudly when necessary, and never losing sight of the change we are working to create.
Gloria Steinem showed us what can be accomplished when people embrace their passions, find their voices, and act. Her circle continues through all of us willing to carry that work forward.
Let’s keep widening it.
