# Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem Was An Anti-Communist CIA Operative who Kept Feminism From Discussing Class
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Publisher: HR NEWS · published 2026-02-24 · read 2026-09-11

Original: https://hrnews1.substack.com/p/feminist-icon-gloria-steinem-was

*A source is testimony, not proof. The document itself is never republished here.*

## Who is named (17)

- [Random House](https://truthscore.com/entity/26c8dd35)
- [National Women’s Political Caucus](https://truthscore.com/entity/2d71402a)
- [C. D. Jackson](https://truthscore.com/entity/39af50ce)
- [Cord Meyer](https://truthscore.com/entity/4f788b31)
- [Redstockings](https://truthscore.com/entity/609e7423)
- [Clay Felker](https://truthscore.com/entity/63035d47)
- [Gloria Steinem](https://truthscore.com/entity/68a433f0)
- [Ramparts magazine](https://truthscore.com/entity/69235c10)
- [Katharine Graham](https://truthscore.com/entity/6e81ca91)
- [The New York Times](https://truthscore.com/entity/9869dffb)
- [CIA](https://truthscore.com/entity/99821d70)
- [Betty Friedan](https://truthscore.com/entity/9b522536)
- [Independent Research Service](https://truthscore.com/entity/a11332b6)
- [Ms. magazine](https://truthscore.com/entity/d7299b5e)
- [Soviet Union](https://truthscore.com/entity/da122d9a)
- [HR STUDIOS](https://truthscore.com/entity/ddb7f4c7)
- [The Village Voice](https://truthscore.com/entity/e648e08d)

## What it added

- [The Soviet Union hosted a series of World Youth Festivals in the late 1950s.](https://truthscore.com/claim/39cde002)
  > In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union hosted a series of World Youth Festivals — mass international gatherings designed to export communist ideology to young activists worldwide.
- [The CIA funded American liberal organizations to send students abroad to counter Soviet messaging.](https://truthscore.com/claim/e947cc8d)
  > The CIA responded by quietly funding American liberal organizations to send students abroad to counter Soviet messaging.
- [Ramparts magazine exposed the CIA program in 1967.](https://truthscore.com/claim/9206db45)
  > When Ramparts magazine exposed this program in 1967, it found the agency had secretly bankrolled dozens of American civil society groups — student organizations, labor unions, cultural institutions — under the banner of anti-communism.
- [The CIA secretly bankrolled dozens of American civil society groups.](https://truthscore.com/claim/5b048f4f)
  > When Ramparts magazine exposed this program in 1967, it found the agency had secretly bankrolled dozens of American civil society groups — student organizations, labor unions, cultural institutions — under the banner of anti-communism.
- [Gloria Steinem was recruited by CIA officers C. D. Jackson and Cord Meyer into the CIA program after two years in India on a Chester Bowles fellowship.](https://truthscore.com/claim/c83b4f92)
  > After two years in India on a Chester Bowles fellowship, Steinem was recruited by CIA officers C.D. Jackson and Cord Meyer into this program.
- [Gloria Steinem founded and directed the Independent Research Service.](https://truthscore.com/claim/73084600)
  > She founded and directed the Independent Research Service (IRS) — a front organization whose purpose was to send American students to the 1959 Vienna World Youth Festival and the 1962 Helsinki festival to counter Soviet influence.
- [The Independent Research Service sent American students to the 1959 Vienna World Youth Festival.](https://truthscore.com/claim/94b48f68)
  > She founded and directed the Independent Research Service (IRS) — a front organization whose purpose was to send American students to the 1959 Vienna World Youth Festival and the 1962 Helsinki festival to counter Soviet influence.
- [The Independent Research Service sent American students to the 1962 Helsinki festival.](https://truthscore.com/claim/e0a751a0)
  > She founded and directed the Independent Research Service (IRS) — a front organization whose purpose was to send American students to the 1959 Vienna World Youth Festival and the 1962 Helsinki festival to counter Soviet influence.
- [The CIA funded the operation with approximately $85,000 for the Vienna festival.](https://truthscore.com/claim/81837b39)
  > The operation was funded almost entirely by the CIA: approximately $85,000 for Vienna alone.
- [Gloria Steinem ran the Independent Research Service from 1959 to 1962.](https://truthscore.com/claim/a956b0d2)
  > Steinem ran the organization from 1959 to 1962 and remained on its board as late as 1968–69.
- [Gloria Steinem remained on the Independent Research Service board as late as 1968–69.](https://truthscore.com/claim/066e8a7b)
  > Steinem ran the organization from 1959 to 1962 and remained on its board as late as 1968–69.
- [Gloria Steinem confirmed her role to The New York Times in 1967.](https://truthscore.com/claim/dd084ffc)
  > When Ramparts broke the story in 1967, Steinem confirmed her role to The New York Times without apology, describing the CIA as “liberal, nonviolent and honorable” and stating she would do it again.
- [Gloria Steinem described the CIA as “liberal, nonviolent and honorable”.](https://truthscore.com/claim/32133940)
  > When Ramparts broke the story in 1967, Steinem confirmed her role to The New York Times without apology, describing the CIA as “liberal, nonviolent and honorable” and stating she would do it again.
- [Gloria Steinem said she would work with the CIA again.](https://truthscore.com/claim/d7fe8e6b)
  > When Ramparts broke the story in 1967, Steinem confirmed her role to The New York Times without apology, describing the CIA as “liberal, nonviolent and honorable” and stating she would do it again.
- [Gloria Steinem entered feminist organizing in 1969–70 with no prior record in any women’s group, no feminist publications, and no history of organizing…](https://truthscore.com/claim/4efec0c6)
  > Steinem entered feminist organizing in 1969–70 with no prior record in any women’s group, no feminist publications, and no history of organizing working-class women.
- [Gloria Steinem co‑founded Ms. magazine in 1972.](https://truthscore.com/claim/4bd1c7f9)
  > Within two years, she was the most recognizable face of American feminism — co-founding Ms. magazine in 1972 and the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.
- [Gloria Steinem co‑founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.](https://truthscore.com/claim/804df821)
  > Within two years, she was the most recognizable face of American feminism — co-founding Ms. magazine in 1972 and the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.
- [The feminism represented by Gloria Steinem explicitly focused on gender and explicitly avoided class.](https://truthscore.com/claim/06389bb8)
  > The feminism she came to represent was explicitly focused on gender — equal access to institutions, reproductive rights, professional advancement — and explicitly avoided class as a framework.
- [Mainstream second‑wave feminism under Gloria Steinem’s influence was built around the concerns of white, college‑educated, professional women and did not…](https://truthscore.com/claim/d3002ad8)
  > The mainstream of second‑wave feminism under Steinem’s influence was built around the concerns of white, college‑educated, professional women. It did not center poverty wages, the absence of universal childcare, or the conditions of working‑class and domestic labor — all of which disproportionately burdened poor women and women of color.
- [Socialist and radical feminists argued that gender liberation without economic liberation was a half‑measure that served elite women at the expense of everyone…](https://truthscore.com/claim/5562d76b)
  > Socialist feminists and radical feminists of the same era — including the Redstockings, Black feminists in the Combahee River Collective, and figures like Barbara Ehrenreich — argued consistently that gender liberation without economic liberation was a half‑measure that served elite women at the expense of everyone else.
- [Redstockings published a detailed investigation into Gloria Steinem’s CIA ties in May 1975.](https://truthscore.com/claim/187bfcc9)
  > In May 1975, the Redstockings — a radical feminist collective founded by Ellen Willis and Shulamith Firestone — published a detailed investigation into Steinem’s CIA ties and their implications for the movement.
- [Redstockings documented Gloria Steinem’s IRS directorship.](https://truthscore.com/claim/1459777e)
  > They documented her IRS directorship, the CIA funding, and the network of relationships surrounding the launch of Ms. magazine — including the role of Clay Felker, who helped fund the magazine’s first issue and had himself worked as an editor on an IRS publication during the CIA‑funded Vienna operation.
- [Redstockings documented CIA funding of the Independent Research Service.](https://truthscore.com/claim/79733748)
  > They documented her IRS directorship, the CIA funding, and the network of relationships surrounding the launch of Ms. magazine — including the role of Clay Felker, who helped fund the magazine’s first issue and had himself worked as an editor on an IRS publication during the CIA‑funded Vienna operation.
- [Clay Felker helped fund the first issue of Ms. magazine.](https://truthscore.com/claim/f8d3cf3c)
  > including the role of Clay Felker, who helped fund the magazine’s first issue and had himself worked as an editor on an IRS publication during the CIA‑funded Vienna operation.
- [Clay Felker worked as an editor on an IRS publication during the CIA‑funded Vienna operation.](https://truthscore.com/claim/e5296377)
  > including the role of Clay Felker, who helped fund the magazine’s first issue and had himself worked as an editor on an IRS publication during the CIA‑funded Vienna operation.
- [Redstockings argued that Ms. magazine functioned as a CIA “parallel organization”.](https://truthscore.com/claim/4694858c)
  > Redstockings argued that Ms. functioned as what the CIA termed a “parallel organization” — an institutional presence that channeled feminist energy into an acceptable liberal framework and away from the class‑based and anti‑capitalist currents that were equally alive in the movement at that time.
- [The Redstockings investigation was widely circulated in feminist circles.](https://truthscore.com/claim/aa1cda4c)
  > The investigation was widely circulated in feminist circles and prompted Steinem to write a six‑page letter defending herself — but never to address the structural question directly: why did the most‑platformed feminist publication in the country systematically avoid class?
- [The Redstockings investigation prompted Gloria Steinem to write a six‑page letter defending herself.](https://truthscore.com/claim/dd0a2fbf)
  > The investigation was widely circulated in feminist circles and prompted Steinem to write a six‑page letter defending herself — but never to address the structural question directly: why did the most‑platformed feminist publication in the country systematically avoid class?
- [The Village Voice reported in 1979 that Random House removed the Redstockings chapter documenting Gloria Steinem’s CIA history from their forthcoming book…](https://truthscore.com/claim/898871e5)
  > In 1979, The Village Voice reported that Random House had removed the Redstockings chapter documenting Steinem’s CIA history from their forthcoming book Feminist Revolution — following legal pressure connected to Steinem and figures in her network, including Katharine Graham and associates of Cord Meyer. The chapter was never published by Random House.
- [Legal pressure connected to Gloria Steinem and figures in her network, including Katharine Graham and associates of Cord Meyer, led Random House to remove the…](https://truthscore.com/claim/e9f1ced8)
  > In 1979, The Village Voice reported that Random House had removed the Redstockings chapter documenting Steinem’s CIA history from their forthcoming book Feminist Revolution — following legal pressure connected to Steinem and figures in her network, including Katharine Graham and associates of Cord Meyer.
- [The Redstockings chapter was never published by Random House.](https://truthscore.com/claim/4e5a1b65)
  > The chapter was never published by Random House.
- [Betty Friedan publicly stated that the questions deserved a full accounting.](https://truthscore.com/claim/3cad8d4d)
  > Betty Friedan, herself a critic of the direction Steinem represented, publicly stated the questions deserved a full accounting.
- [The liberal feminist establishment used legal and institutional leverage to suppress a working‑class feminist critique.](https://truthscore.com/claim/704e96b4)
  > The pattern — liberal feminist establishment uses legal and institutional leverage to suppress a working‑class feminist critique — was a demonstration of the very dynamic Redstockings had identified.
- [Mainstream feminism in the 1970s and 1980s was shaped decisively by Gloria Steinem’s network and platform and produced real gains for professional women.](https://truthscore.com/claim/28b08823)
  > The feminism that reached mainstream America through the 1970s and 1980s — the feminism of glass ceilings, professional representation, and individual advancement — was shaped decisively by Steinem’s network and platform. It produced real gains for professional women.
- [The movement allowed companies to hire women executives, run feminist ad campaigns, and faced no structural challenge to low wages, absent benefits, and…](https://truthscore.com/claim/0f270c79)
  > It also produced a movement that could be absorbed into corporate culture with minimal disruption: companies could hire women executives, run feminist ad campaigns, and face no structural challenge to the low wages, absent benefits, and exploitative conditions that defined the working lives of most women.
- [The outcome resulted from choices made by people whose institutional formation was explicitly anti‑socialist and whose rise was funded by the CIA.](https://truthscore.com/claim/17ded341)
  > That outcome was the product of specific choices about what feminism would foreground and what it would leave out — choices made by people whose institutional formation was explicitly anti‑socialist, and whose rise was funded, at its origins, by the agency most dedicated to containing the American left.

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