Hillary Clinton is remembering Gloria Steinem as an “eternal signal fire” whose decades of activism helped transform opportunities for generations of women.

The former secretary of state called into CBS Mornings on Thursday, Sept. 3, hours after learning of Steinem’s death. The sad news was announced in a joint statement shared on Steinem’s Instagram account and by Gloria’s Foundation early Thursday morning, which said the pioneering journalist and feminist activist died peacefully surrounded by loved ones on Wednesday at 92.

“I’m heartsick, as I think everyone who not only knew her, but followed her, was inspired and challenged by her,” Clinton told co-anchor Gayle King.

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Clinton, 78, recalled first becoming aware of Steinem during the 1960s and ‘70s, when she said the activist began publicly challenging the barriers that kept women from pursuing the same educational and professional opportunities as men.

“All of a sudden, this incredibly smart, beautiful, talented woman began talking about how women should have equal opportunity, how we should aim for the stars and be able to pursue our own dreams,” she said.

In her call, Clinton also pointed to Ms. magazine, which Steinem cofounded in 1972, as an important resource for women who had personally encountered gender discrimination but had rarely seen those experiences examined publicly. Steinem served as an editor of the groundbreaking publication for 15 years.

“I knew there were, back when I was a young woman, schools that wouldn’t take women, jobs that wouldn’t take women, scholarships that weren’t open to women. I lived it,” Clinton said. “But the lived experience became much more real and applicable to our entire society when Gloria began to point it out.”

Over the years, Clinton and Steinem developed a friendship of their own. Clinton said she visited Steinem at her home last year, where the two shared an “incredible conversation” about the continued fight for women’s equality.

Despite the challenges that remained, Clinton said Steinem never lost faith in the possibility of progress. “Gloria was, at heart, an optimist,” she said. “Her activism was rooted in optimism. And that’s a moral choice, and she made it every day.”

Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem in March 2019.Bruce Glikas/WireImage
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Calling Steinem “one of the architects of the entire structure of women’s equality,” Clinton reflected on the many ways the activist helped open doors she would never personally walk through — including Clinton herself, who in 2016 became the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party, with Steinem among the prominent feminists supporting her historic campaign.

“She wasn’t going to be an astronaut, but by goodness, she made it possible for Sally Ride to be an astronaut,” Clinton said. “She wasn’t going to play college sports, but she stood behind the women in Congress to pass Title IX to open up opportunities in sports and academics for girls. And she wasn’t on the Supreme Court when Roe v. Wade was decided, but her voice and her activism was behind that.”

“And with all the setbacks that we’ve seen over the last decade or so,” she added, “I want her voice to remain in our heads.”

Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem in March 2023. Francois Nel/Getty
Clinton said she had been thinking about Steinem since learning of her death early Thursday morning, particularly about the activist’s ability to listen to others as she traveled across the country and around the world.

“She really traveled our country — indeed the world, but particularly America — listening to people, listening to their stories, providing clever, witty responses to people who got discouraged and telling all of us to keep going,” Clinton said. “There are very real achievements that she herself had, but that she helped others make. But it was her whole persona; the way that she embodied possibility.”

That quality reminded Clinton of a concept Steinem shared with her longtime friend Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation: signal fires, used to communicate across distances and bring people together.

“I kind of think that Gloria is an eternal signal fire, I really do,” Clinton said. “Somebody who is out there burning bright to the very last hour of her life.”

Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem in October 2017.Cindy Ord/Getty
Asked by CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe what she would tell girls and younger women encountering Steinem and her work for the first time, Clinton spoke out about her own granddaughter while encouraging the next generation to look to Steinem’s life not only as a record of what one activist accomplished, but as an example of what can happen when people bring others along with them.

“I have a granddaughter now, and I don’t want her to have fewer rights than I did,” she said. “And I’m hoping that young women realize that the fight is worth it. It is exhilarating.”

“Don’t get discouraged, don’t just narrow your world to the problems you have; find ways to reach out and lift up others,” she said. “And when you do, it’s going to expand your universe. And you’re gonna find things about yourself and what you’re capable of that you never thought possible.”

“I think of her as just our avatar of possibility,” Clinton added, “and I want us to keep remembering her life and her wisdom and her encouragement to the rest of us.”

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Steinem emerged as one of the most prominent leaders of the second-wave feminist movement after beginning her journalism career in the 1960s. In addition to cofounding Ms., she helped establish organizations including the Women’s Action Alliance, National Women’s Political Caucus and Women’s Media Center, and spent decades advocating for reproductive rights, workplace equality and the Equal Rights Amendment.

In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.