Feminist Pioneer Gloria Steinem Worked for the CIA
Photo by Susan Wood/Getty Images
Gloria Steinem was a journalist and political activist who became the face of the American feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She protested the Vietnam War and was a champion for LGBTQ rights. She was also a CIA agent during the Cold War. Steinem was head of the Independent Research Service. She was recruited to travel to Soviet-controlled youth festivals in Austria and Finland to interject left-leaning capitalist views during the gatherings. She later defended her work for the CIA by saying that during the 1950s and 1960s the agency was comprised of “enlightened, liberal, non-partisan activists of the sort who characterized the Kennedy administration.”