Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine co-founder and women's rights journalist, dies at 92

NEW YORK - Gloria Steinem, the journalist and organizer who helped found Ms. magazine and spent six decades arguing for equal opportunity for women, died Wednesday at her home in New York City. She was 92. A statement posted on her Instagram said she died peacefully, surrounded by people who loved her. No cause was given.

Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1934 and graduated from Smith College in 1956. After a fellowship in India, she worked as a freelance writer in New York. In 1963 she published "A Bunny's Tale," an undercover report from a Playboy Club that described low pay and harsh working conditions for cocktail waitresses.

She later helped launch New York magazine and, in 1972, Ms. magazine, widely seen as the first major national magazine run by and written for women. In 1971 she helped form the National Women's Political Caucus to recruit and train women candidates. Then-President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 for her activism.

NPR, Fox News, the BBC, AP and Reuters all reported the death as national news. Steinem remained a public speaker and author into later life, including the 2015 memoir My Life on the Road. Her career spanned investigative reporting, magazine editing and decades of campaign work for women's legal and workplace standing.