The Housewife’s Moment of Truth

Forty years ago, in the midst of the feminist revolution, activist Gloria Steinem and a group of female journalists started a magazine that would tackle the most controversial issues of the day. In 1971, New York magazine included a 40-page excerpt of the first issue of Ms., with articles such as “The Housewife’s Moment of Truth” and “Women Tell the Truth about Their Abortions.” It was a time when sex discrimination was rampant in the workplace, and Steinem and her cofounders wanted a magazine run and read by women. “nothing happened without men,” one of the editors remembers. Looking back, Steinem is impressed with the legacy: “I’m not at all sure that I understood it at the time because I was so conscious of what there was to do and what we had to leave out. But today I reread the first issue and said, ‘This was really good.’”