Gloria Steinem 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Humanities

This prize commemorates 87 years in journalism, her bestselling books, and her dedication to feminism since the 1960s. The jury that decides the Princess of Asturias praised her as “one of the most significant and iconic figures of the women’s rights movement.”

Her activism has reached a lot of issues such as the fight for the legalization of abortion, equal pay, and the approval of the Equal Rights Amendment. She has also stood up against the death penalty, female genital mutilation, and child abuse. Gloria Steinem is largely recognized as one of the leaders of the feminist movement during the sixties and seventies. Besides gender equality and education, she has also campaigned about racial and political issues.

Some of her celebrated quotes from the front-lines of the fight for equality are:

-"A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men."‬

-"Women have two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist."‬

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-"The problem is the feeling that we're divided from politics, that our vote doesn't count or what we do doesn't count. In fact, everything we do counts."‬

-"We are the women our parents warned us against, and we are proud."

-"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."

-"When unique voices are united in a common cause, they make history."

-"Empathy is the most radical of human emotions."

In 1972 Steinem, co-found Ms. Magazine, the first feminist publication lead and produced exclusively by women. After graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts, in 1956, Steinem moved to India for two years on a scholarship. In 1960 she started to work for Help!, in New York, and she wrote an exclusive about the Playboy Club working conditions and wages for women.

Some of her bestsellers are The Beach Book (1963), Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983), Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem (1992), Marilyn (1997), Doing Sixty & Seventy (2006), My Life on the Road (2015) and the biographical film The Glorias, released in 2020.

She has participated in different forums and in the founding of women's organizations, such as the National Women's Political Caucus, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Women's Action Alliance, the Women and AIDS Fund, and the Women's Media Center. Her exemplary work has meant she has won several honorary doctorates and awards such as the Women's Sports Journalism Award (2004), the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award (2015), and she was included in the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. Furthermore, the Library of Congress of the United States incorporated her as one of its Living Legends in the year 2000.