Sheila Michaels, Feminist Who Coined ‘Ms.’, Dies At 78
By Dave Goldiner July 7, 2017
Sheila Michaels, an iconic feminist activist who was credited with coining the title “Ms.,” has died, the New York Times reported Thursday. She was 78 and had been battling leukemia.
“A giant has left us,” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, where Michaels was an active member, according to the St. Louis Jewish Light newspaper.
Michaels, a St. Louis native who was a lifelong stalwart in women’s and civil rights movements, died on June 22.
She came up with the honorific in the early ’60s for women who did not want to be defined by their relationship to men.
The term gained widespread popularity in 1971 when Gloria Steinem decided to use it as the name of her trailblazing feminist magazine.
Michaels lived in New York’s lower East Side for decades.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
