Gloria Steinem spent her life trying to change the world. Communications was one of her most powerful tools.
Steinem, who died this week at age 92, is rightly remembered as an icon of the modern women’s movement. But as I’ve reflected on her extraordinary life, I’ve also been thinking about her as a communicator: a journalist who became a spokesperson, an organizer who became one of the movement’s most recognizable faces, and an entrepreneur who built new platforms when existing ones failed women.
Her career also resonates with me personally. I co-founded Vanguard Communications to focus exclusively on social causes I cared about. Nearly four decades later, I still believe deeply in the idea that has guided my career and our firm: Communications can be a force for social change.
For communicators who believe our work can help advance the causes we care about, Steinem’s example offers enduring lessons.
- Listen first. Then communicate
One quality I most admire in Steinem was her commitment to listening.
Even late in life, she emphasized listening to other women’s experiences and connecting their stories. That principle is fundamental to good communications.
I’ve always believed we cannot develop an effective strategy from behind a desk. We need to understand what people are experiencing, what matters to them, what they are saying — and what they are not saying.
At Vanguard, we call this community-driven communications. The people closest to an issue are experts in their own experiences. Our responsibility is not to decide what their story should be, but to listen, learn and help create opportunities for their voices to be heard.
Steinem understood that long before “community engagement” became a communications discipline.
- Connect personal stories to bigger change.
Steinem began as a journalist. Her groundbreaking 1963 undercover reporting about working conditions at the Playboy Club exposed the sexism and exploitation women working there experienced. Journalism eventually drew her more deeply into activism and the emerging women’s movement.
She understood that personal experiences can reveal something much bigger.
This is one of the most important lessons for communicators working on social issues.
Data can show that a problem exists, but stories help people understand what that problem means in someone’s life. The strongest social change communications connect individual experience and systemic issues.
But people are not case studies or content. When someone shares a deeply personal experience, we must honor their agency and dignity and ensure they have a voice in how their story is told.
The goal is not just to tell a compelling story, but to help people see an issue differently and perhaps motivate them to act.
- If the platform you need doesn’t exist, build it.
This lesson from Steinem’s life especially speaks to the entrepreneur in me.
In 1971, Steinem helped launch Ms. magazine, creating a national platform where women could see their lives, concerns and ambitions taken seriously. At a time when the emerging feminist movement was often dismissed by mainstream media, Steinem and her colleagues did not simply argue for better coverage. They built the platform they believed women needed. I understand that instinct.
At 27, I knew I wanted a communications career, but I also wanted my work to contribute to something larger. I cared about issues like women’s health, the environment and food safety. I could not find a communications firm built entirely around advancing social causes. So my co-founder and I started one.
I certainly was not Gloria Steinem. But I recognize something in her entrepreneurial approach: Sometimes what you are looking for does not exist yet because you are meant to help create it.
- Being a spokesperson is about the movement, not the spokesperson.
Steinem became one of the most recognizable faces of feminism. She traveled constantly, speaking at rallies, college campuses and community centers and advocating for equality into her 80s and 90s. Remarkably, she had initially feared public speaking. (I can relate to that too!)
Anyone who has prepared an organizational leader, advocate or community member for an interview knows the influence a strong spokesperson can have. But Steinem’s career also reminds us of the responsibility that comes with becoming the face of a movement.
No single voice should be expected to speak for an entire community. Social movements are strongest when many people can see themselves in them. For communicators, that means our job is to create opportunities for more voices, perspectives and lived experiences to enter the conversation.
Sometimes the most important thing a powerful spokesperson can do is pass the microphone.
An entrepreneur of social change
One description of Steinem stayed with me as I read about her life: She called herself an “entrepreneur of social change.”
What a wonderful way to think about a life’s work. Steinem did not just communicate ideas — she helped build the infrastructure that allowed those ideas to travel. I find tremendous inspiration in that.
Our profession gives us more power than we sometimes recognize. We help decide which stories receive attention. We help organizations determine whose voices get elevated. And when we do our jobs well, we can help people imagine change is possible.
Steinem embodied that idea throughout her career. That is a legacy worth remembering — and a lesson worth carrying forward.
