AMY GOODMAN: The feminist icon Gloria Steinem has died at the age of 92. According to her Instagram page, she, quote, “passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her,” unquote.

She was a tireless advocate for the social, economic and political advancement of women. In 1971, she co-founded Ms. magazine, the first major publication to be owned, run and written by women. It focused on issues seldom covered in the mainstream press, including reproductive rights, violence against women and workplace inequality. Gloria Steinem often said, quote, “When we started, there was not even a term for sexual harassment.” She also helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus with a group of women including Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan and Fannie Lou Hamer.

For Esquire magazine, she went undercover in 1963 as a Playboy bunny and wrote an exposé about the poor working conditions that the servers in Playboy clubs endured.

Before becoming a feminist icon, Gloria Steinem served as director of the Independent Research Service, a nonprofit educational foundation secretly funded by the CIA.

In 2013, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

I interviewed her at the historic Women’s March in Washington, D.C., on January 21st, 2017, one day after Donald Trump’s first inauguration.

GLORIA STEINEM: My name is Gloria Steinem. I’m here today because I wouldn’t be anyplace else on Earth. We are taking democracy back. I mean, let’s face it. It doesn’t say “I the president” at the beginning of the Constitution. It says “We the people.”

And, actually, I’ve lived a long time, but I’ve never seen an outpouring of energy quite like this. You know, the Vietnam War was crucial, but it was sort of more youth-oriented, because it was about the draft and, you know, issues. Things have been about a particular issue in Washington. But this is more capacious and more about who makes decisions, in general.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what does that mean right now? How are you going to take him on? It’s not only Donald Trump. There is a majority-Republican House and Senate. They’re vowing to take down Planned Parenthood, to defund it, to repeal the Affordable Care Act. How are you going to do this?

GLORIA STEINEM: Well, one day at a time. For instance, if they defund Planned Parenthood and defund NPR, we can take that money out of our income tax, put a note with our return saying, “Sorry, I’ve sent it where it should go. Come and get me.” If enough people do that, it’s very difficult to do anything about it. We did it in the Vietnam era. And then, we just — it was more difficult, in a way, because we were just keeping the money. This is more positive, because we’re actually giving the money where it should go.

AMY GOODMAN: What does it mean to defund Planned Parenthood?

GLORIA STEINEM: You know, Planned Parenthood is, of course, necessary to women’s health in this country. A very — what? One percent of it goes toward abortion. It does everything, we know — breast exams and everything else. So it would be incredibly expensive to every emergency room in the nation, if they were not able to serve women and men in the way that they do. Therefore, if they defund it, we’ll take money out of our income tax and send it direct.

AMY GOODMAN: I was speaking to Gloria Steinem at the Women’s March in 2017, January 21st, 2017, the day after President Trump’s inauguration. The crowd at the Women’s March was larger than those who attended the inauguration. She spoke from the stage.

GLORIA STEINEM: This is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life. It is wide in age, it is deep in diversity, and, remember, the Constitution does not begin with “I the president,” it begins with “We the people.”

AUDIENCE: We the people!

GLORIA STEINEM: So, don’t try to divide us. Do not try to divide us. If you force Muslims to register, we will all register as Muslims.

I know that there are women here from corporations and media and all kinds of places that make it kind of risky for you to say what you care about, what you feel and what you support. And there are women here, I know, who have survived a national and global sex industry that profiteers from body invasion. We are united here for bodily integrity. If you cannot control your body from the skin in, you cannot control it from the skin out. You cannot control your lives, our lives. And that means the right to decide whether and when to give birth without government interference.

AMY GOODMAN: Gloria Steinem, speaking the day after President Trump was first inaugurated. She died on Wednesday at the age of 92. Gloria Steinem once said, “Women have two choices: Either she’s a feminist or a masochist.”

Coming up, an anonymous federal whistleblower warns the U.S. Postal Service’s new mailing system is untested, fatally flawed and likely to lead to a catastrophic failure. Back in a minute.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Hungry Ghosts” by Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And I’m Nermeen Shaikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.