Robin Morgan, a former editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine who co-founded the Women’s Media Center with Ms. co-founder Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, died today, September 5, just several days after the passing of her friend and colleague Steinem. Morgan was 85.
Her death was announced by her son Blake Morgan and Julie Burton, president and CEO of the Women’s Media Center. A cause of death was not disclosed, but her son noted that she died peacefully in her sleep. Robin Morgan was in her second decade of living with Parkinson’s Disease.
In a statement, Fonda said, “Robin Morgan was an artist, a poet, an activist, and in my eyes, a living legend — a woman whose anthology series, Sisterhood is Powerful, Sisterhood is Global, and Sisterhood is Forever provided the evidence needed to launch a feminist revolution, and it was part of my feminist education that led to the movie, 9 To 5.”
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“I have learned so much from Robin over the years,” Fonda added. “I love her and all that she has brought to the world, the women’s movement, and to me on the most personal levels. I already miss her and my heart is broken.”
The editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine from 1989 to 1994, Morgan, over the last decade, hosted, wrote, and produced the award-winning WMC podcast Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan. The podcast recently produced its 500th episode.
Morgan, Fonda and Steinem co-founded the Women’s Media Center 21 years ago with a mission to give voice to and strengthen democracy for women in media and beyond. “Our job is to make women visible and powerful in the media,” Morgan once told Fox 5 Good Day New York. “And we do that through lots of programs — through training women in media skills, through SheSource, which is the go-to place for experts, through many programs and our radio program [now podcast], Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan.”
Today the Women’s Media Center produces original on-air and online journalism by and about women, and documents and fights structural sexism and racism in media.
“Robin Morgan was one of the architects of the contemporary women’s movement,” Burton said in a statement. “Her global leadership for justice and equality, her work as a pioneering journalist who gave voice and visibility to women, and her fierce artistry as an internationally recognized poet and author of more than 20 books – these all constitute the legacy she has forged over decades of creative, cultural, and political work.”
“We will carry on her work,” Burton said of the WMC.
Fonda recalled another way in which Morgan made an impact.
“In my film career, I know that designers often offer beautiful clothes for interview and award show purposes,” the actor said. “Imagine my surprise and delight a few years ago in learning that the esteemed House of Dior was honoring Robin Morgan, a feminist and women’s liberation leader and one of the organizers of the historic 1969 Miss America pageant protest (and the designer of the feminist symbol of the raised fist within the Venus symbol), with a specially created T-shirt series honoring Robin’s feminist Sisterhood anthology and its global impact.
“The small but mighty activist and literary force was being celebrated by the first woman creative director of Dior women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear, and accessories collections, Maria Grazia Chiuri. What a beautiful and meaningful act showing the power of combining art and activism.”
Morgan’s son Blake survives her; complete survivor information was not immediately available.
