Tribute | I saw Gloria Steinem turn Gandhi’s lessons into a global feminist movement

Venice was full of light when the news came that Gloria had died. I was there for the Vital Voices Venice Dialogue, among women confronting authoritarianism across continents. Grief entered the room, but it did not leave me alone. Almost every woman there had known Gloria or been changed by an idea she set loose in the world. One remembered her wit; another, her attentiveness; another, the permission she gave her to trust her own experience.

As the stories moved around the room, sorrow became companionship. I thought: this is what Gloria would have wanted. We were not turning her into a monument. We were doing the work, listening to one another, seated in a circle.