The Education of a Woman

Noted feminist scholar and Columbia Univ. humanities professor emerita Heilbrun has produced an admiring yet searching biography of outspoken women's movement pioneer Gloria Steinem. Written with Steinem's cooperation, it defends the cofounder of Ms. magazine against criticism that she compromised her radical feminist ideals by hobnobbing with the wealthy and powerful and by pushing feminism toward the political mainstream. Steinem is presented as an ``uncompromising, boundary-crossing'' leader who lost touch with herself through workaholic commitment to causes and turned to introspection and psychotherapy at the age of 52. Born in 1934, raised in Michigan and Ohio, Steinem cared for her ``sometimes crazy'' divorced mother, who had repeated mental breakdowns, while she admired and forgave her irresponsible father, a traveling antiques and jewelry salesman. Steinem's decision never to marry and her numerous romantic affairs (with director Mike Nichols, publisher Tom Guinzberg, real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, etc.) are viewed in the context of early emotional deprivation. Heilbrun etches an acid portrait of Steinem's arch rival, Betty Friedan, and plunges readers into the 1970s heyday of the contemporary feminist movement. Photos. (Sept.)