The irony of Gloria Steinem’s latest push for voter engagement is hard to miss. Rallying cries such as, “If you don’t vote [for Kamala Harris], you don’t count!” ring a bit hollow, given her past. A past that many Americans know very little, if anything, about.
I’m talking about Steinem’s history with the CIA — a group infamous for undermining democracy. From 1958 to 1962, Steinem worked as director for the CIA-backed Independent Research Group, which actively helped manipulate youth movements to advance American geopolitical interests.
The glaring disconnect between her public persona as a crusader for empowerment and her involvement with an organization notorious for crushing those very ideals is both hilarious and rather hypocritical.
Then, there are the murky circumstances of the 1972 founding of Ms. Magazine, the editorship of which cemented Steinem’s role as the face of the feminist movement. It was New York Magazine publisher Clay Felker who put up much of the money for Ms.; he had previously given Steinem her first writing jobs while an editor at Esquire.
But Steinem and Felker went further back than that; they had both worked together at the Independent Research Center.
It gets stranger when you consider some of the other sources of funding for Ms: one was the powerful Katharine Graham, publisher-owner of Newsweek and the Washington Post.
Another was media conglomerate Warner Communications Inc., which invested $1 million in Ms. but only took 25% of the stock it was entitled to, making it a major investor but minority stockholder.
In 1978, these same backers successfully prevented Random House from publishing information on Steinem’s CIA history in “Feminist Revolution,” an anthology by radical feminist collective Redstockings. The offending passages were censored.
Clearly, Steinem’s association with an agency that has meddled in foreign elections, propped up dictators, and sabotaged democratic processes worldwide is a sore point for the modern feminist movement.
Down with the patriarchy, up with the covert ops
The irony deepens when considering Steinem’s role as perhaps the most celebrated feminist of her era. The glaring disconnect between her public persona as a crusader for empowerment and her involvement with an organization notorious for crushing those very ideals is both hilarious and rather hypocritical.
Oh, and let’s not forget Jane Fonda, another feminist icon and a close admirer of Steinem. She was also tied to the CIA.
Do these stalwarts of human rights have any dignity themselves? Do they carry any regrets? Do any of the younger women who see them as icons realize they were both CIA spooks, aligning themselves with an agency that embodies the very antithesis of democracy, human dignity, and freedom?
Founded in 1947, the CIA quickly evolved from its original mission of intelligence gathering into a tool for covert operations. While the agency has played a positive role in certain instances — such as its efforts during the Cold War to prevent nuclear escalation — its wicked ways are undeniable.
Subverting democracy, supporting despots
From its very inception, the CIA prioritized regime changes around the world to protect U.S. corporate interests, rather than to promote democracy.
Two notorious examples were Iran and Guatemala. In 1953, the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, whose decision to nationalize the country’s oil threatened Western corporate profits. The CIA’s Operation Ajax not only restored the shah’s rule but also ignited decades of anti-American sentiment that would later explode in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
While the revolution was framed as a triumph for national sovereignty, it was anything but a victory for Iranian women. Before the revolution, women enjoyed relative freedoms, with the ability to dress however they pleased, work, and pursue education. But the Islamic regime imposed harsh restrictions, forcing women to cover themselves with the hijab and limit their movements, often requiring a male guardian for basic activities.
Today, women in Iran have never been less free.
As for Guatemala, the CIA’s 1954 coup against President Jacobo Árbenz was another prime example of prioritizing U.S. corporate interests over a nation’s democratic will.
Árbenz had sought to redistribute unused land, much of it owned by the U.S.-based United Fruit Company, to impoverished farmers. Fearing the loss of its vast holdings, United Fruit lobbied the U.S. government, and the CIA acted swiftly to remove Árbenz.
The result was decades of military dictatorship, civil war, and widespread human rights abuses (including brutal rapes). Thousands of Guatemalans, particularly indigenous populations, became the victims of violent repression. The intervention devastated the country, leaving scars that still endure today.
Sniff, sniff
The agency’s involvement in the illegal drug trade further erodes any semblance of moral integrity. The Iran-Contra affair, in which the agency not only illegally supplied arms to Nicaraguan rebels but also facilitated the flow of drugs into the United States to fund these operations, comes to mind. This scheme resulted in devastating consequences for the less well-off (you know, the people who feminists care so much about), especially black Americans, who bore the brunt of the crack cocaine epidemic.
Specifically, an epidemic fueled by the CIA’s complicity.
Additionally, the agency has infiltrated and manipulated global media through programs like Operation Mockingbird, which involved recruiting journalists to spread propaganda and suppress narratives unfavorable to U.S. interests.
It doesn’t end there. With the CIA, it never does.
The agency’s actions have often undermined global peace efforts. Its role in covert operations like Project MKUltra, a mind-control research program, shows a willingness to experiment on human subjects with no regard for their well-being. Participants were subjected to forced drug consumption, electroshock therapy, and psychological manipulation. The fact that this program ran for two decades, largely in secret, is a testament to the lack of moral oversight within the agency. All in the name of democracy, of course.
From the assassination of democratically elected leaders like Patrice Lumumba in the Congo to backing murderous regimes in Latin America, the CIA has blood on its hands. These actions were never about supporting democracy but securing U.S. dominance, often at the cost of countless lives. And who suffered the most? Most likely women and girls — the very people Steinem and Fonda love so deeply. Feminism has never looked so shallow, so shambolic.
Duplicity on wheels
In Afghanistan, as more recent reports show, CIA-backed death squads orchestrated night raids on religious schools, targeting children. In a particularly horrific instance, 12 boys, as young as 9, were massacred during a raid on a madrassa in Wardak province. These actions were part of a broader campaign of terror that included executions, mutilations, and attacks on civilian structures, all carried out with U.S. support.
I hope Steinem and Fonda, especially Steinem, see this. While she’s busy pushing young Americans to vote for Kamala, here’s my message: They need her advice like a fish needs a bicycle.