After several government documents were declassified, it was revealed Steinem worked for the CIA. From 1958 to 1962,

 Dorothy Lennon

 ·

Follow

 ·

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has passed away. I must admit, when I observed her career early on I was enthralled with her journalism and organizing. But as the months turned into years, she was sadly absorbed into the very system she fought against.

After several government documents were declassified, it was revealed Steinem worked for the CIA. From 1958 to 1962, Steinem served as the director of the Independent Research Service (IRS), an organization established and funded by the CIA. Its mission was to counter Soviet influence at youth events worldwide, specifically by sending American non-communist students and activists to the World Youth Festivals in Vienna (1959) and Helsinki (1962).

When the magazine Ramparts exposed widespread CIA funding of youth and student groups in 1967, Steinem spoke openly about her role. She confirmed that she knew the CIA was bankrolling the organization and defended the arrangement. Steinem famously stated that "if I had a choice I would do it again.”

Transitioning into the 1990s, Steinem became a defender of the sexual predator, Bill Clinton. She drew sharp criticism for a March 1998 New York Times op-ed titled Feminists and the Clinton Question, in which she defended President Clinton against allegations made by Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Monica Lewinsky. Steinem wrote that even if the allegations were true "for the sake of argument," Clinton was not guilty of sexual harassment and argued that Clinton's conduct amounted to a "clumsy sexual pass.”

During the 2016 campaign, she was a surrogate for Bill Clinton’s war criminal wife, Hillary Clinton. During an appearance on Bill Maher’s program, she suggested young women were only joining Bernie Sanders’ campaign to meet boys. She told Maher, “When you're young, you're thinking, 'Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie.'” She later apologized.

For me, I place Steinem in the same category as a figure like Noam Chomsky: people I recognized as heroes, only to be disappointed and let down as they were slowly absorbed into the Deep State and neoliberal structure. Yes, I don’t deny Steinem inspired a lot of women, but how many of those women know the aforementioned about her?