Glo­ria Steinem offers an inspir­ing and can­did mem­oir of her ear­ly life and the jour­ney that made her one of the world’s most influ­en­tial activists and sto­ry­tellers.

​“In revis­it­ing the equal-rights move­ments Steinem helped build, she offers wis­dom to new gen­er­a­tions about what the next chap­ters of the fight for equal­i­ty will demand.”—Van­i­ty Fair

​“An Unex­pect­ed Life is a lumi­nous act of remem­brance and gen­eros­i­ty.” — Rox­ane Gay, New York Times best­selling author of Bad Fem­i­nist

Before she became a fem­i­nist leader, Glo­ria Steinem was a curi­ous child: going on road trips with her itin­er­ant father, car­ing for her moth­er, and devour­ing every book she could find. In An Unex­pect­ed Life, Steinem reflects on the unlike­ly expe­ri­ences and piv­otal moments — from a child­hood rat bite that opened her eyes to the dan­gers of pover­ty to the 1970 Women’s March hon­or­ing the right to vote — that shaped the vision­ary woman she would become.

She shares her years liv­ing in India, learn­ing from the non­vi­o­lent move­ment there, and her trav­els around the world advo­cat­ing for women’s rights. Along the way, she hon­ors the peo­ple who influ­enced her most, includ­ing trail­blaz­ers, writ­ers, and thinkers who expand­ed her under­stand­ing of pow­er, com­mu­ni­ty, jus­tice, and sol­i­dar­i­ty.

Mov­ing between past and present, Steinem exam­ines the progress and set­backs of six decades of activism. As she reflects on the move­ments she helped build and the vic­to­ries won for women’s and human rights, she also looks ahead, urg­ing new gen­er­a­tions to imag­ine bold­er, more inclu­sive paths for­ward.

Inti­mate, fun­ny, and rich with hard-earned wis­dom, An Unex­pect­ed Life offers read­ers the rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn direct­ly from one of feminism’s most endur­ing voic­es as we con­tin­ue the work of build­ing a bet­ter future for all.