Gloria Steinem’s stay in India in the 1950s was a major moment in her life and career, shaping her approach to feminism and personal independence, according to The Guardian. Arriving in Delhi with romantic expectations of “ageless beauty and jewelled elephants,” Steinem, who died this week at the age of 92, quickly encountered the stark realities of Asian poverty, including people sleeping on pavements and doorsteps.

Personal Struggles and New Beginnings

India was “not only a place I’d always wanted to go, but (also) an escape from a very kind and tempting man to whom I was engaged and knew I shouldn’t marry,” Steinem later wrote. The prospect of marrying Blair Chotzinoff, a pilot from a well-connected New York family, depressed her “enormously because marriage meant the end of life to me.”

Funds were short, so she wangled a free airline ticket in exchange for an article “that I still feel guilty to this day because I never wrote.” While in London waiting for her Indian visa, she discovered she was pregnant and obtained an illegal abortion—an experience that underpinned her conviction that, without control over reproduction, women could not control their own lives.

Immersion in Indian Culture

Steinem lived at Miranda House, one of Delhi University’s leading women’s colleges, immersing herself in student life. “At night in our rooms we have long sessions and are asked everything: the Christians’ conception of God, the details of western lingerie, the dating system, how much milk the American cow gives,” she wrote.

Steinem adopted the sari as everyday dress, writing: “Saris make one stand straighter and walk more slowly and worry less about time and efficiency.” India was not entirely unfamiliar territory for her.

Her Indian years have been extensively documented by Rashida Shafiq of Southern Methodist University, who drew on her fellowship reports and other archival material for a recently published PhD thesis.

Legacy and Influence on Young Activists

Gloria Steinem, who died Wednesday at age 92, was one of the most recognizable faces of American feminism. Her influence extended beyond her own work. In 2004, a 19-year-old undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania met Steinem at a ChoiceUSA meeting. She wanted to thank her for her work but assumed she would simply nod and move on. Instead, Steinem surprised her by saying the ideas were not her own but came from a group of Black and Latina women who had been fighting for civil rights for four decades.

Steinem explained that they had taught her about pursuing justice and using her voice as power. Her role was to give them a microphone through her writing and speeches. She told the student that she could also create change. Her words have stayed with the student for over 20 years, teaching her to use her voice and treat every interaction as an opportunity to pay the lessons forward.

With those four words, she taught the student that she could, as Steinem said, create change by doing the work, learning from those who came before her, and treating every interaction as an opportunity to pay the lessons forward. The student, who grew up in Pittsburgh as a shy and introverted girl in an Indian American family, began volunteering for reasons she couldn’t fully explain at the time.

Gloria Steinem’s life-changing stay in India and her interactions with young activists like this one continue to inspire new generations to pursue justice and equality.