India, Sept. 4 -- Gloria Steinem, an American journalist, author and activist who was one of the most enduring faces of the feminist movement and the face of the reproductive and civil rights of women in the US, has died, her foundation announced Thursday. She was 92.

Steinem also had a deep association with India, where she encountered and absorbed many foundational ideas that later shaped her work. Long before Steinem became one of the most visible advocates for women's rights, she was a young American woman in her early 20s in Delhi, trying to work out what to do with her life.

In 1956, shortly after graduating from Smith College, Steinem arrived in India on a Chester Bowles Asian Fellowship. She spent part of her time in Delhi as a ...