For this first truly revelatory account of Gloria Steinem, Sydney Ladensohn Stern spent fifty hours interviewing Steinem, in addition to conducting over two hundred interviews with friends, lovers, and associates from both her past and present.

After joining the women's movement, Steinem cofounded Ms. magazine, the Ms. Foundation, the National Women's Political Caucus, and Voters for Choice. She has written innumerable articles and several bestselling books; made hundreds of speeches every year; campaigned for an endless stream of organizations, causes, and candidates.

Yet inside the celebrity, symbol, and leader is a complex woman, an intriguing combination of contradictions - courageous yet vulnerable, beautiful but insecure, generous and ambitious, highly intelligent yet at times willfully blind. Gloria Steinem truly embodies the conflict between the traditional female role of "being" (pretty, charming, supportive) and the male role of "doing" (achieving success in the world).

Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique provides an insightful and lively history of the women's movement at the same time it examines Steinem in all her varied roles.