Week beginning 9 September 2026

Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem

Remembering Gloria

Kathy Spillar, Ms. Executive Editor <info@msmagazine.com> 5 Sept 2026, 23:01

Weekly DigestLetter from an Editor | September 5, 2026
Dear Robin, 

Gloria.  

She was a journalist, an organizer, a movement-builder. A woman with a powerful voice—and a woman with a profound capacity for listening. When she cofounded Ms. in 1972, she gave millions of women language for experiences they had been told were private, shameful or insignificant. Ms. put abortion, sexual harassment, domestic violence, reproductive freedom and LGBT rights on the public agenda.

As many of you can attest, its impact has been incalculable.  As the tributes to her have poured out over the past several days, it’s more clear than ever just how many lives she touched, from the posts and comments on social media to the personal messages that many of you have sent us. It seems like everyone has an anecdote—from women who saw their lives and experiences reflected for the first time in the pages of Ms. in the 1970s, to fellow women in journalism who have fought to keep women’s stories above the fold, to teenagers and young adults today who are taking to the streets to protest the war on women and demand equality for all.  

I’ll particularly remember her commitment to women in the labor force, as we celebrate Labor Day this weekend. From groundbreaking coverage of workplace harassment and sexism to investigative reporting about the plight of women working in sweatshops to the (sadly still relevant) wage gap, Ms.’s pages shed light on the real issues working women faced—often years or decades before other magazines dared to investigate.  

As I wrote in a piece for Ms. this week, when Steinem and the other owners of Ms. brought the magazine to the Feminist Majority Foundation in 2001, we understood that we were being entrusted with far more than a publication. We were being asked to preserve an independent feminist institution, and to keep it alive, questioning and relevant for generations. We would face battles we could not yet foresee. That responsibility is more urgent today than at any time in recent memory. We’re living amidst a backlash against women’s rights, a backlash against the significant and tangible gains that Gloria and her fellow feminist organizers worked towards for decades. Our bodily autonomy is under attack at every level. Rising authoritarian movements in the U.S. and around the globe are targeting women’s rights and freedoms, because they understand that women’s rights are central to democracy.  That understanding has always been at the core of Ms.’s work, since day one. Midterms are just around the corner, and as usual, women’s rights are on the ballot, from House races that will shape legislation for the next several years, to state supreme court races that will shape abortion access and voting rights.

Here at Ms., we’re taking a moment to remember—but we know that now is not the time to rest. We’ll be reporting from the front lines on the races you need to know about in the coming weeks and months. It’s what Gloria would have wanted: for us to channel that grief into action, and to keep her legacy alive by fighting like hell. As I wrote earlier this week, the most important monument to Gloria will not be a statue, an award or even a shelf of remarkable books. It will be the work we—working together—do next. Thank you for joining us in doing this work, and honoring her memory.  Onward,Kathy Spillar Executive Editor 

P.S. — Gloria changed the story women were permitted to tell about themselves. Now it’s our responsibility to keep telling the truth—and to make certain that no billionaire, advertiser, government or algorithm can silence it. I would urge you to support Ms.’s reporting, rebelling and truth-telling by becoming a subscriber or making a contribution.

Hillary Clinton leads tributes to Gloria Steinem: ‘Her activism was rooted in optimism’

Ex-secretary of state joins Nancy Pelosi, Jill Biden, Roxane Gay and others in heralding groundbreaking feminist

•  Gloria Steinem, groundbreaking feminist campaigner, dies aged 92
•  ‘We badly need to raise our boys more like our girls’: Gloria Steinem – a life in quotes

Leading figures from politics, entertainment and wider society led glowing tributes to Gloria Steinem on Thursday, with Hillary Clinton hailing the American feminist icon who died at 92 at home in New York City as “one of the architects of the entire structure of women’s equality”.

Clinton, a former US secretary of state, presidential candidate and first lady, was among the first to jump in with praise early on Thursday when she appeared on the CBS Mornings TV show to share her respect and gratitude for Steinem.

Clinton urged younger generations to use Steinem as a role model in supporting each other in promoting the causes she championed.

“I’m hoping that young women realize that the fight is worth it,” she said. “It is exhilarating.”

Kamala Harris, the former US vice-president, hailed Steinem as a “trailblazing activist, organizer, and journalist – an icon in so many ways”, in a post on X.

“To know her as a person is to know someone who was kind, sharp, and witty. She was invested in young women and keeping the door open for the next generation of leaders,” Harris wrote.

“I will always be grateful for her encouragement and support in my campaign for the presidency. A campaign that was made possible, in no small part, because of her activism and so many other giants upon whose shoulders we stand.”

Others who eulogized Steinem included Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker, who called her “a fearless trailblazer who transformed the fight for equality in America”. Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, added her voice to call Steinem her “friend and mentor”, while the music icon Patti Smith referred to her as “the greatest”.

Broadcaster Oprah Winfrey called Steinem a “formidable reformer who shaped American thought and culture”. And Billie Jean King, the athlete who led the fight for equality for female tennis players, said in a Facebook post that “the world has lost a true giant and a dynamic voice”.

“She lit a torch many years ago. It is now our responsibility to keep it lifted into the future. May she rest in power,” King wrote.

Jill Biden, another former first lady, released a statement in which she said she and former US president Joe Biden “are holding Gloria’s loved ones in our hearts”.

Biden wrote: “Gloria Steinem understood that women’s equality begins with the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, health, and futures. For decades, she fought to make that freedom real for generations of women and girls.

“She spoke up when it was difficult, listened to those whose voices too often went unheard, and never stopped pushing our country forward. Her voice changed our country, and her courage will continue to inspire us to keep fighting for the freedoms she spent her life defending.”

Steinem had supported Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as the Democratic nominee running against Republican Donald Trump, which was ultimately unsuccessful as Trump prevailed in an election that would have given the United States its first female president. Clinton said on Thursday she was “heartsick” at news of the death of her feminist friend and ally.

“Everyone who not only knew her but followed her, was inspired and challenged by her,” she said.

“I think back to my first awareness of Gloria way back in the 1960s into the 70s, when all of a sudden this incredibly smart, beautiful, talented woman began talking about how women should have equal opportunity, how we should aim for the stars, be able to pursue our own dreams.

“I knew there were, back when I was a young woman, schools that wouldn’t take women, jobs that wouldn’t take women, scholarships that weren’t open to women. I lived it.

“But the lived experience became much more real and applicable to our entire society when Gloria began to point it out.”

Clinton noted Steinem’s distaste at what politics had become in recent years, and said she had “the most incredible conversation” with her during a visit to Steinem’s home last year.

“Even though we’re facing some challenges and pushback here in this country and around the world to women’s full participation and equality, Gloria was at heart an optimist,” she said. “Her activism was rooted in optimism, and that’s a moral choice, and she made it every day.”

Pelosi paid tribute in a post on X that said: “Gloria Steinem was a fearless trailblazer who transformed the fight for equality in America and inspired generations of women to know their power.

“Her voice, courage and relentless advocacy helped break down barriers and open doors once firmly closed to women. May it be a comfort to all of us who loved Gloria that her extraordinary legacy will live on in every generation that carries her fight forward.”

Markle posted her memories on Instagram. “Celebrating the life and legacy of my friend and mentor, and also grateful to know that in these last few weeks and days she knew exactly how loved and admired she was,” she wrote.

“My very favorite story about GLO is when she was out one day in NY, and a woman approached her in absolute awe and said she wanted to introduce her young daughter to her (though she was embarrassed to say the young girl may not know who she was).”

The post continued: “Gloria replied: ‘It doesn’t matter if she knows who I am. What matters is that she knows who SHE is’. Rest in peace, and rest in pride.”

Smith, who shared a similar path to Steinem as a cultural revolutionary icon emerging from New York in the 1960s and 70s, posted a brief tribute on Instagram. “This is the greatest Gloria. All are grateful for her revolutionary spirit; a lifetime of service,” she wrote.

The Oscar-winning actor Julianne Moore played Steinem in the 2020 biopic The Glorias. She said on Instagram: “The time I spent studying Gloria in order to play her was one of the most edifying of my life.

“Everything I watched, everything I read, everything I observed about her gave me a template for how I wanted to behave. Her honesty, her tolerance, her patience, and her insistence on humanism and inclusion as she moved through the world offers us all a moral roadmap.”

Others who paid tribute on Thursday also recalled Steinem’s trailblazing.

“Gloria was one of a kind. Genuine, generous, curious, thoughtful. She lived a staggering life and her passing is a staggering loss tempered only by the ferocity of her legacy,” Roxane Gay, the prominent social commentator andauthor of Bad Feminist, commented on the Instagram post announcing Steinem’s death.

Winfrey, on her own Oprah Daily website, said Steinem “challenged a culture that often told us who we could be, what we could do, and how much space we were allowed to take up, and then spent her life making that space wider for all of us”.

Alongside a picture of Winfrey and Steinem together, the TV host added: “She never wanted the movement to be about her. She understood that real change happens when one woman finds her voice and then uses it to help another woman find hers.”

“The New York Times refused to use ‘Ms.’ as a form of address for a dozen years; thus I remained ‘Miss Steinem of Ms. magazine.” Gloria Steinem

POLITICO

Robin Morgan, writer and feminist, dies at 85

Robin Morgan, the editor-in-chief for Ms. Magazine, celebrates the magazine’s comeback in her New York office Feb. 28, 1990.© Susan Ragan/AP

NEW YORK — Robin Morgan, a wholesome child star of the 1940s and ‘50s who grew up to become an all-American radical as a poet, essayist, editor and second-wave feminist, has died. She was 85.

Morgan, who was still working on new books and poems, died Saturday in New York after suffering a series of health problems in recent weeks, said her son, Blake Morgan. Her death came just days after that of her close friend and fellow activist Gloria Steinem.

During the 1960s and ’70s, Morgan embodied and inspired historic changes in how women lived and thought. As she was happy to point out, the onetime “Ideal American Girl” and adored “Little Robin Morgan” was a rule breaker and justice seeker with a notable list of achievements, along with a prison record and an FBI file.

Morgan was at the center of some of the defining moments of what came to be called second-wave feminism, expanding upon the achievements of the suffragists a half-century earlier. In 1968, she was among the organizers of the first protest against the Miss America pageant, joining fellow activists in tossing their bras (soon mythologized as burning) into a “Freedom Trash Can.” The 1970 essay anthology she edited, “Sisterhood is Powerful,” is considered one of the essential texts of the modern women’s movement.

Yet she considered herself primarily a poet and artist, and that work fed into her activism, her son said.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library: What its success means for children’s reading

Photo: Imagination Library

One of the late Dolly Parton’s greatest legacies for children around the world is how the much-loved country singer used her wealth and influence to promote reading.

Parton’s Imagination Library has provided hundreds of millions of books to pre-school children around the world since 1995.

While books are of course important, my work as a reading and language academic makes clear this must be complemented with robust reading instruction and support that is sustained through childhood and adolescence for those who need it.

Parton was well aware that she was judged by her appearance, and used this to her advantage.

Behind her almost cartoonish “cover” was an incredibly smart woman who used her profile to address the things she cared about: Community, poverty, education and reading.

For her Tennessee community, she built the Dollywood theme park in 1986 to bring employment, the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to promote education, and the Imagination Library in 1995 to give children access to books.

The Imagination Library gifts a book a month to children from birth to five years.

What started in Dolly’s home state in the US has extended to Australia, Canada, the UK and Ireland. In any area where there is an active program partner, parents and carers simply sign up and the rest is taken care of.

In 2025, the program celebrated its 30th anniversary and hit a milestone of distributing more than 300 million books to children.

In her research, Caroline Zwierzchowska-Dod at Swansea University revealed the impact of the program, including increased shared reading, improved early childhood literacy and boosting school readiness.

Motivation and engagement

Parton created the Imagination Library in tribute to her father, who was held back in life by illiteracy.

The singer’s response was to provide access to books, resonating with other initiatives around the world, like Britain’s BookTrust Bookstart program and Australia’s state-based initiatives.

But motivation and engagement is about more than just access to books.

In the Nuffield Foundation’s Love to Read project, access was just one of six identified research-informed principles to promote reading motivation and engagement.

Also important are – choice of reading materials; having the time to read, connection and personal resonance, social interaction around books; and the success needed to identify as a reader.

Alongside reading materials, we must ensure that children can access printed formats, whether they are reading to one another, or for themselves.

In terms of human evolution reading is a recent invention, employing parts of the brain that have evolved to support spoken language and vision. But unlike spoken language, reading must be actively taught, and effective early instruction is crucial.

The British national curriculum, and many Australian states, mandate systematic synthetic phonics, where children are taught the sounds that link to letters, alongside a rich language and reading environment.

Despite high-quality reading instruction, a substantial minority of young children have reading needs.

The research I undertook with colleagues Laura Shapiro, Sanne van der Kleij and Adrian Burgess demonstrates reading needs are also prevalent in the teenage years, especially for youngsters from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

We have translated our work into two continuing professional development programmes that enable secondary school leaders and teachers to support reading in their pupils.

Both will and skill are important. If both are in place, then young readers can enter a virtuous circle of reading more, getting better at reading, reading more, and so on.

Importantly though, our research shows that skill must come first if we want our young people to enter this virtuous circle.

Early experiences, sustained practice

Dolly’s Imagination Library gifts books to all children from babies up to the age of five. Providing access to books from birth helps to establish early shared reading habits.

Research indicates that shared reading of “first word” books is directly linked to infant word learning, and that regular reading routines promote infant interest and parent confidence.

The goals of the Imagination Library and our findings resonate with the importance of early efforts to promote reading. However, early intervention can never be enough.

Academics and teachers must sustain the efforts to identify, support and monitor reading progress throughout childhood and adolescence, for at least two reasons.

First, the demands of reading change as children develop. Initially, language comprehension is crucial as children listen to stories.

Then, as children learn to read, knowledge of the sounds of their language (phonology) and how they map them onto letters (orthography) comes into play.

As children build their word-reading skills, reading fluency and reading comprehension, a complex array of knowledge and skills becomes important – including vocabulary, comprehension skills and background knowledge of the text. Thus, the barriers to successful reading change.

This means we can’t assume a child who can successfully engage in shared reading experiences will be successful when they learn to read. Reading difficulties or needs can emerge at any point, as the challenge of reading shifts.

So, identification and monitoring is an ongoing process.

Second, even if we have robust approaches for identifying reading needs in the early stages of reading, these needs may well be pervasive over time.

While early intervention is crucial, we must monitor progress carefully and intervention must be sustained where it is needed.

Dolly Parton may no longer be with us, but her generous Imagination Library has put millions of books into the hands of children all over the world.

It has helped foster not just a love of reading, but good reading habits that can set children up for life.

Jessie Ricketts is Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway, the University of London

American Politics

Bob McMullan

Two months to go in the race for the US Senate

With two months to go until polling day, although some early ballots have already issued, a superficial examination of the polling gives the Democrats the advantage in the contest for control of the Senate. However, there is more to the story than meets the eye.

The predictive websites, such as the Silver Bulletin, suggest that the Democrats have a more than 50% chance of winning control of the Senate. (They also suggest approximately 85% chance of a Democrat control of the House) Polling aggregators, such as Real Clear Politics (RCP), currently have the Democrat candidate leading in eight of the nine key seats. If this were to be the result the Democrats would end up with 52 seats in the 100 seat Senate.

So why do I have continuing doubts?

In my view too many of the seats are too close to call and it requires optimism to assume anyone will win almost all of them.

This caution, taken together with the extraordinary results which will be required in states like Texas for the Democrats to win suggest that the next two months campaigning will be crucial.

State by State

Two almost certain wins

Georgia and North Carolina

Jon Ossoff in Georgia and Roy Cooper in North Carolina continue to lead their Republican opponents by seven points or more in all polls. It is difficult to imagine circumstances by which they do not both win decisively.

These two would take Democrats to 46 seats.

More difficult States

Michigan, Maine and New Hampshire

These are states that the Democrats should win in the prevailing political climate. However, they all look close.

In Michigan, the Democrat candidate is the controversial Abdul El-Sayed. He is polling ahead of the Republican, Mike Rogers, but only by a little more than 2% on average. He is the favorite to win but he seems a little vulnerable with a history of social media activity which may come back to haunt him.

Maine is a State the Democrats won in the last presidential election and which therefore should be relatively easy to win in this mid-term electoral cycle. However, the Democrats have made it difficult for themselves by initially choosing a candidate they subsequently had to force to withdraw. His replacement, Troy Jackson is leading the incumbent Republican, Susan Collins by about 2.5% but she will be hard to beat and Jackson has only a short time to establish himself.

New Hampshire will finalise their candidate choice this week, but it seems clear that the Senate contest will be between Chris Pappas for the Democrats and John Sununu for the Republicans. Pappas is leading by about 2% but Sununu is a well known name in New Hampshire and it is likely to be a close contest.

These three will all need to fall the Democrats way for them to gain a majority. If all three Democrat candidates are successful, which they should be, it will take the Democrats to 49 seats.

Strong Republican states in play in 2026

Texas, Ohio and Alaska have been Republican strongholds in recent times. However, the current electoral climate and candidate issues have put them into contention in 2026.

Texas

James Talarico leads Ken Paxton by more than 2%. Paxton is almost the worst imaginable candidate and Talarico seems to be doing well.

An additional factor is Trump’s alienation of the Hispanic vote which he won decisively in 2024 but whose support for Republicans has collapsed.

The necessary qualification of the emerging Democrat enthusiasm about Texas is the fact that Trump’s PAC has just committed $10 million to support Paxton.

Ohio

The key factors in Ohio seem to be the popularity of Sherrod Brown, the Democrat candidate and the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs in Ohio. It is close but Brown continues to lead.

As a former Senator he is a known quantity and may well be able to withstand any last minute Republican attacks.

Alaska

Mary Peltola, the Democrat candidate appears to be the favorite against incumbent republican, Dan Sullivan. She is also a well known figure as a former House member for the state.

Two of these three would be enough if all those above are won, but if Democrats need all three it will be a very difficult task.

Iowa

Iowa is generally considered in this category but at the moment it seems less likely to fall the Democrats way. Josh Turek, the Democrat, trails in polls in which the Democrat candidate for Governor of Iowa is leading quite clearly. This is a worrying sign. Definitely one to watch but I am less optimistic about this one at the moment.

Outside chances

Some commentators are talking up the Democrats’ chances in Kansas and continue to speculate about the possibility of an Independent winning in Nebraska.

At this stage I think either of these will only fall in a landslide, which may happen, but they are very unlikely to be decisive in winning a majority for the Democrats.

Cindy Lou celebrates at Black Fire

Thank you to the guest photographer who took most of the photos.

Alas, the desserts looked so scrumptious we were too busy eating and forgot photos! There were also some delicious greens and a tomato salad that have gone unrecorded …they were passed up and down the table to ensure that everyone had a serve, including the two photographers who then ate rather than photographed.

The food was delicious, the company fantastic, and the service pleasant.

Book review from 1000 Libraries: Soyangri Book Kitchen

Fiction Soyangri Book Kitchen

A heartwarming bestselling Korean novel about the power of books to heal, as a woman leaves her busy life in Seoul to open a bookshop café in the countryside where guests can stay overnight.

Welcome to Soyangri Book Kitchen.

In a quaint village, nestled outside the bustling heart of Seoul, lies a book lovers’ paradise. With its wafts of delicious food and book-filled shelves, Soyangri Book Kitchen is dotingly managed by its plucky proprietor Yoojin. Her aim? To create a sanctuary for weary souls like herself.

But the book kitchen is more than just a place to eat or read – it’s a place which offers its guests a true escape, not just inside the pages of its many books, but in the warm embrace of an overnight ‘bookstay.’

Over the course of a year, seven individuals, all at a crossroads in their lives, find their way to Yoojin’s book kitchen. Among them are Da-in, an idol singer grappling with an identity crisis, Sohee, a promising lawyer confronted with a daunting medical diagnosis, and Soohyuk, a young musical director whose dreams have been stifled by failure.

As they arrive in Soyangri, each of them will find their life subtly transformed by the magic of its books and the kindness of its people.

“Profound and quietly radical.”

— KLWAVE

Most of us carry an invisible blueprint for life, one that is drawn up long before we ever really understood what we want. Not only are we taught that true success is a relentless vertical climb, but we also end up measuring our worth based on our elevation in a hierarchy that rarely cares enough to ask if we are tired or bothers enough to let us rest. In Soyangri Book Kitchen, Kim Jee Hye gently exposes the emotional toll of this perpetual scramble.

“Society never stops reminding us that a successful life is to stand at the top of the pyramid. We aren’t allowed to fall, even if we’re still learning how to walk… We grow up with a deep-set fear that the moment we deviate from the path, we’re going to fall off the cliff.”

Set in a quiet, idyllic book stay nestled in the countryside, the novel serves as a sanctuary for those who feel battered by the demands of modern life. Through a cast of characters who are each grappling with burnout, expectation, and the quiet grief of unrealised ideals, the story explores what happens when we finally grant ourselves permission to step off the treadmill.

Rather than leaning on grand, dramatic plot twists, the book relies on the radical power of stillness. It reminds us that stepping away from the pyramid isn’t a failure, but rather an act of self-preservation. If you have ever felt exhausted by the pressure to constantly achieve, or if you find yourself terrified of what might happen if you simply pause, Soyangri Book Kitchen offers a deeply comforting antidote. It doesn’t ask you to solve your life overnight; it simply invites you to pull up a chair, open a page, and breathe.