Always a contradictory figure, Gloria Steinem has been both hailed and vilified as the acceptable face of feminism. Not until her political engagement found active voice through the New York magazine and her own venture, the ground-breaking and influential MS, did the media coverage about the world's most beautiful byline begin to peter out. Steinem's vigorous work throughout the sixties in support of civil rights, abortion and the anti-Vietnam movement, and her subsequent embracing of the feminist cause, had at last put her beauty in perspective. This work is a survey of the forces that shaped this remarkable figure. Covering Steinem's difficult childhood in Toledo, her years at Smith College and her watershed sojourn in India, the author offers an insight into Steinem's developing consciousness.