Beyond the Conspiracies: Was Gloria Steinem a Liberal Fascist?
By Saswat Pattanayak
New York || September 7, 2026
(Disclaimer: Liberal fascism is not a contradiction, oxymoron or rhetorical weapon. It is a real threat that continues to plague the world today where wars and genocides - that result in deaths of innocent people, much like the consequences of fascism - are normalized and made acceptable under the garb of liberal politics. Whether or not Steinem represented it remains an open question)
Gloria Steinem. Photo by Saswat Pattanayak (07/16/2013)
“I used to think the CIA was some horrible fascist conspiracy. Then I discovered it was a little treasure trove of liberalism, the one refuge for liberals during the McCarthy period." - a student leader
Gloria Steinem’s death has positioned her as a vile, manipulative CIA agent on one hand and a trailblazing liberal second-wave feminist on the other. Although there seems to be strong disagreement between both camps of reviewers on summarizing the legacy of Steinem, there need not be any at all. The truth is she was both - and in fact, it was quite necessary for her to be that way.
To seek the answers, those disparaging or glorifying her need to employ the lens of historical materialism - of the conditions birthing the ideas, not vice versa. In the backdrop of intense Russophobia, anticommunism and Cold War of the 60’s, the ideas (both dominant ruling ones, and those sanctioned/funded by the state to emerge as consequential to make the status quo more acceptable) needed to serve the political economy. One such idea under capitalism that had been allowed to thrive in the USA therefore, was liberal feminism.
Liberal feminism (mostly led by reactionary white women) was designed to serve capitalism. Those who fail to see it as thus try to defend Steinem as an innocent office-bearer of the so-called Independence Research Service that had received CIA funding to attempt at sabotaging a communist youth festival (Vienna, 1959). The unsavory truth is there was nothing innocent about it - Steinem was spearheading the attempt with full knowledge of CIA involvement. And what’s worse, this was not some late realization - Steinem had masterly led propaganda work for the US government on her own accord.
For instance, to prepare for the disruptions at Vienna, she played “Mohini” - an Indian girl, to fake-criticize segregation in the US that was going to be brought up among the communists - sounded great to the audience only for “Mohini” later to have been shut down in the dialogue because she was told she had little right to question American society when, “As an Indian surely you understand the difficulties. After all, in your country you have had and still have the caste system of segregation. You know how long it will take to eliminate that.”
The idea behind CIA’s interventions was not just to justify imperialism but also to deride anticolonial movements that were attending Soviet-led youth conferences. CIA was targeting several such countries in Asia and Africa. Steinem had just returned from one such - India. She had been profoundly moved by her researches in India for a couple of years - which in her own words shaped her worldviews and led her to conclude that she needed to engage with the non-communist youths of the US to then bring them to disrupt communist festivals around the globe.
Steinem’s youth movement participation linked her to National Student Association (NSA) which was notorious for its CIA funding since at least 1952 - folks who collaborated with her in 1959 for Vienna disruptions as part of the only anticommunist group present there as attendees to sabotage. For obvious reasons, Communist Party USA used to call NSA a fascist outfit.
When Steinem became editor of the Ms. Magazine in 1971 - her biggest claim to fame in feminist space since she did not have any book or feminist theory to her credit - she said that was her very first full time salaried job. It was a lie because she had been duly employed for years by the research organization that was heavily funded to disrupt not just the 1959 Vienna festival, but also the 1962 communist festival in Helsinki, under her leadership.
As far as her feminist credentials were concerned, Ramparts magazine in 1967 had through its investigations exposed Steinem’s reactionary backgrounds. Many even raised questions on her claim that she turned into a feminist after returning from India where she had written a book called “The Thousand Indians” - a book which no one seemed to have ever seen or read. In fact, New York radical feminists of the day in an editorial for Redstockings wrote - “We have questions about Steinem’s motives for entering the women’s movement in 1969-70, so soon after her defense of the CIA…We are suspicious of her sudden rise to prominent as a “women’s liberation leader” at a time when, unlike other prominent women’s liberationists, she was active in no women’s group, she had not written a feminist book, won a Congressional seat or played a superb game of tennis. In fact she as unknown to most women in the movement.”
Just as National Association of Black Students (NASB) had broken off from NSA in 1969, so had National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) moved out of the Ms. Magazine building after the CIA connections came to the fore. While co-opting many Black feminists for her own gains, it came to light that Steinem “had access to their files, too. In addition she has had a finger in every pie, from domestic workers' organizing to stewardesses' conventions; from women’s labor conferences to simultaneous work in the McGovern and Chisholm presidential campaigns (prompting Shirley Chisholm to finally insist that Steinem decide who she was working for).”
When she was asked if she was collecting data on leftist Americans as part of her work with CIA, she flatly had denied. Except, it was revealed through the Ramparts investigations that she was indeed doing exactly that - as the director of the body that generated “Report on the Vienna Youth Festival”, she had gathered and printed comprehensive biographical data on not only American communists but also on international participants.
What’s especially devious about this is McCarthyism had received a major blow by this time. Witch-hunting and Red Scare were largely being looked down upon and CIA funding of domestic activities was declared illegal due to the massive unpopularity attached to such political blackmailing tactics. And yet, the legacy of white supremacist anticommunist activities had to continue - maybe for that, the system had to utilize acceptable faces and popular ideas. And liberal feminism offered itself to that task in exchange of some fundings. It’s a pattern still palpable to this date, unfortunately. For that not to be questioned today, Gloria Steinem must then be glorified by the liberals to be a trailblazer, a pioneer, a leader of the feminist movement.
The harm caused to women in the process has been significant. Kathie Sarachild (whose “consciousness-raising” concept was wrongfully marketed by Ms. Magazine as theirs) differentiated radical feminism from liberals: “What was moving behind radical women was that we understood that we were basically the same as other women and therefore what would turn us on would turn other women on. We built from our own feelings. In the beginning only the radicals dared to call themselves feminists. Now the radicals have been cut off from the media because there are so many more ‘respectable’ feminists around.”
Ms. Magazine which was declared as the first ever feminist publication by the respectable feminists was based on a lie. Off Our Backs was already publishing way before Ms. showed up. Besides, Ms. was heavily funded by corporate America and submitted to their whims time and again. When Warner Communications wanted to bring back 1940’s Wonder Woman to make it respectable, Gloria Steinem enthusiastically worked towards that (the original Wonder Woman was an army intelligence officer, and unironically today it’s identified by zionist Gal Gadot).
CIA’s involvement in liberal feminism movement was not an aberration. It was quite natural because nothing does propaganda as well as a humane face that conveys pacifying messages. When Hillary Clinton (Steinem’s buddy) today says TikTok youths, the Squad and the radical left need to check their tone and history lessons, she personifies liberal feminism. When Nancy Pelosi asks restless students to simply accept capitalism because “that’s just the way it is”, she personifies liberal feminism.
As the Off Our Backs editorial summed it up on CIA: “It has been widely recognized that one major CIA strategy is to create or support parallel organizations which provide alternatives to radicalism and yet appear progressive enough to appease dissatisfied elements of the society.” This explains not just liberal feminism’s role in preventing revolutions by the radical feminists, but it also explains the extension granted by it to specific political manifestations - the allowance for widespread presence of Trotskyists across American college campuses that work to identify left-leaning students in order to contain them.
All her life, Steinem played a useful role in being a mediator to contain radicalism. For that she deserves to be mourned by the anticommunist liberals, the liberal zionists, and the reactionary feminists. It is therefore not a surprise that she was a key liberal figure and an agent of oppressive state mechanism. It was a necessity.
References:
“YOUTHS BRIEFED ON RED FESTIVAL; Co-Directors of Group Here Pose as Foreign Students Who Criticize the U.S.” - where she cosplays Indian girl Mohini (New York Times, July 4, 1959)
“Vienna Festival Chants 'Peace, Friendship': Communist Officials Appeal To 'Youth' as New Class” (The Harvard Crimson, October 13, 1959)
“Work of CIA with Youths at Festivals is Defended” (CIA reading room portal, February 18, 1967 - PDF linked)
“C.I.A. SUBSIDIZED FESTIVAL TRIPS; Hundreds of Students Were Sent to World Gatherings” (New York Times, February 21, 1967)
A Short Account of International Student Politics & the Cold War with Particular Reference to the NSA,CIA,Etc. (Ramparts Magazine, March 1967)
“Ms. Steinem’s CIA Connection” - where she allegedly denies her connection and threatens lawsuit (CIA reading room portal, May 10, 1975 - PDF linked)
Redstockings Challenge Steinem and Ms. (Off Our Backs, July 1975)
Kathie Sarachild on Gloria Steinem and the CIA (Pacifica Radio, December 30, 1975)
“The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America” by Ruth Rosen, Penguin (2000), pages 235-39, 255-57
“Steinem’s not a lion of feminism, but a lamb of feminism” (New York Times, October 7, 2016)
