What Gloria Taught Me: Remembering a Feminist, a Leader, and a Force of Nature

I have spent the last few days thinking about how to write about Gloria Steinem. There is no shortage of words that can be used to describe her: feminist, journalist, activist, organizer, author, leader, and icon. All of those words are accurate, but for me, they do not quite capture what Gloria meant to me personally.

From 2014-2017 I had the privilege of working at the Ms. Foundation for Women, the organization Gloria helped establish. Those were some of the most formative years of my professional life. I was surrounded by extraordinary feminist leaders, organizers, philanthropists, and activists, and I had a front-row seat to the work of an organization that believed deeply in building women's collective power and supporting women-led movements for justice and equality.

I learned an enormous amount during those years. Much of what I learned had to do with feminism, philanthropy, and social change, but just as much of it had to do with how to lead people and how to create a workplace where people can do their best work.

Gloria's politics were not something that existed separately from the way she worked. Her politics and ethics showed up in the workplace every day. They influenced how people were treated, how decisions were made, whose voices were heard, and how power was understood. She challenged the traditional hierarchies that often exist in workplaces and demonstrated that leadership did not have to mean having all the answers or being the loudest person in the room.

That was an important lesson for me early in my career. I learned that good leadership requires listening. It requires curiosity and a willingness to reconsider your assumptions. It requires making space for people who may not have traditionally been given a seat at the table. It requires recognizing that people bring different experiences and perspectives to their work and that those differences make an organization stronger.

Most importantly, I learned that you can be ambitious about the work without losing sight of the people doing it.

Those lessons have stayed with me throughout my career and have influenced the leader I am today. When I think about how I want to manage people, develop teams, and create a healthy workplace, I often find myself drawing on what I observed during those years.

I also had experiences at the Ms. Foundation that still seem remarkable to me when I look back on them now.

I remember our annual gala honoring Hillary Clinton and the incredible experience of being surrounded by so many accomplished women who had spent their lives fighting for equality and expanding opportunities for others. At the time, I was focused on doing my job and making sure the event went well, but looking back, I realize just how extraordinary it was to be in those rooms and to have the opportunity to learn from the women who were there.

I also had the opportunity to help start the Ms. Foundation's Young Professional Advisory Committee. We were able to galvanize hundreds of young people around the Foundation's mission and create a community for people who wanted to become more involved in feminist philanthropy and activism.

That experience taught me another important lesson about leadership: if you want a movement to continue, you have to make room for the next generation. You have to give younger people opportunities to participate, contribute, develop relationships, and eventually take on leadership themselves. The Foundation did that in a way that felt very natural to me at the time, but I appreciate it much more now.

One of my most memorable experiences was working with Annie Leibovitz and Gloria on the opening of the Women's Building in Manhattan. The building, which had previously been a women's prison, was being transformed into a space for feminist organizing and community. The symbolism of that transformation was powerful in itself, and being there for the opening was an experience I will never forget.

That evening, I had the honor of being Gloria's handler. At one point, it was just the two of us walking through an alley toward a cab. Gloria was around 80 years old, and I remember thinking about how extraordinary it was to be walking beside this woman who had spent her entire life challenging assumptions about what women could do and what women could become. One puddle after the next.

She was fearless. She had spent decades walking into rooms where she was not necessarily expected or welcomed, asking difficult questions, challenging powerful people, and continuing to advocate for women even when it was unpopular or personally difficult. Seeing her in those more ordinary moments gave me a different appreciation for that fearlessness. She was not fearless because she never encountered difficult circumstances. She was fearless because she continued moving forward despite them.

There were countless other moments that I still think about. I made wonderful friends during my time at the Foundation, and I was fortunate to meet so many remarkable and fierce women through Gloria's enormous network. Gloria had spent decades building a network of people who were committed to changing the world, and I was incredibly fortunate to find myself within that network for a period of my life. I met people I never would have otherwise met and heard stories that changed the way I thought about leadership, activism, and what was possible.

One of my favorite memories is an evening I spent at Gloria's home. It was intimate and informal, and I remember listening to her tell stories about her life and her work. What struck me most was that even after everything she had accomplished, she remained deeply interested in what was still ahead.

She talked about the future with the same energy and curiosity that she brought to everything else. She was interested in what the next generation would do, what issues would emerge, and what changes were still possible. She did not seem satisfied with simply celebrating the progress that had already been made. She wanted people to keep thinking about what needed to happen next.

That perspective feels particularly important now.

It is painful to look at the current state of women's rights and acknowledge that many of the rights and protections Gloria and generations of feminists fought so hard to establish are once again being challenged. Some have been rolled back, and others remain vulnerable. It is difficult not to feel a profound sense of sadness and frustration when we have lost someone who spent so much of her life fighting for those very rights.

But I also think Gloria understood better than most people that progress is not permanent. She knew that every generation has a responsibility to continue the work. The fact that something has been achieved does not mean it will always remain protected, and the fact that a movement has won an important battle does not mean there will not be another one.

That is perhaps one of the most important things I took away from my years at the Ms. Foundation. Social change is not something that belongs to a handful of famous leaders. It is built by thousands of people doing different kinds of work, often without recognition, and by organizations that create opportunities for people to come together and build power.

Gloria was exceptionally good at bringing people into that work.

I look back on my four years at the Ms. Foundation with an incredible amount of fondness and gratitude. I was young enough to still be figuring out who I wanted to become, and I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who gave me examples of the kind of leader I wanted to be.

I learned from Gloria, but I also learned from the many feminist leaders who surrounded her. I watched women lead with conviction while remaining generous. I watched them disagree without losing sight of their shared purpose. I watched them use their influence to create opportunities for other people rather than simply accumulating more influence for themselves.

Those experiences shaped me in ways I continue to discover.

I am also grateful that Gloria's life gave so many of us an opportunity to find one another. The friendships I made, the relationships I built, and the people I met through the Foundation have remained some of the most meaningful connections of my professional life. That network was one of Gloria's greatest contributions. She spent decades creating it, nurturing it, and bringing people into it, and its influence will continue long after her death.

As I think about how to honor Gloria, I keep coming back to the idea that remembering her is not enough. The most meaningful way to honor her is to participate in the work she spent her life advancing.

That can take many forms. It can mean supporting organizations led by women and girls, mentoring someone who is earlier in her career, making space for voices that are often overlooked, supporting reproductive freedom and gender equality, or simply challenging sexism when we encounter it in our workplaces and communities. It can also mean investing in the next generation of feminist leaders and making sure they have the resources, relationships, and opportunities they need to continue the work.

For me, that last piece feels especially important. I was once a young professional who was given an opportunity to participate in a movement much larger than myself. I learned from people who had been doing this work for decades, and I was given the chance to contribute in my own way. I hope I can provide that same opportunity to someone else.

I am incredibly grateful that my career happened to intersect with Gloria's life and work. I am grateful for the four years I spent at the Ms. Foundation, for the people I met there, for the experiences I had, and for everything those years taught me about feminism and leadership.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have known Gloria, to have worked for her, and to have been able to witness even a small part of the world she helped create.

Her legacy belongs to all of us who learned from her. I hope we are worthy of it.

And I hope we continue the work.

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Juliana M. Burke, CFRE is a respected leader and decision influencer in regard to fundraising operations best practices. With over a decade of experience, Juliana thrives on professional growth, team success, measurable results, and inspiring fundraisers to utilize data-based strategies. Juliana currently serves as the Associate Director of Development Operations at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She has served as an AFP Global Board Member, AFP Global's 2019 Outstanding Young Professional Fundraiser and is a member of the AFP Global Women's Impact Initiative. Juliana is immediate past chair of the AFP New York City chapter’s Emerging Leaders Committee and currently serves on the chapter’s board chairing their mentorship program. She resides in Houston, TX and never turns down a good kombucha.