“Ms.“ Magazine, November 1977 Issue
"In 1971, in response to a lack of journalistic media produced by and for women, Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes co-founded Ms. Magazine, aided by an original editing team including Mary Thom, Mary Peacock, Patricia Carbine, Nina Finkelstein, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Joanne Edgar. Hughes and Steinem had originally intended to start a newsletter to raise money for the Women’s Action Alliance, a feminist educational organization which the two also founded in 1971. Realizing that newsletters would not necessarily have the fundraising effect they desired, Steinem and Hughes began looking into creating a glossy-cover magazine. Ms. filled a significant void in magazine publishing at the time: in Steinem’s words, before Ms., '...there really was nothing for women to read that was controlled by women.'
Despite the founding team’s doubts and overt skepticism from other -- largely male -- voices in the journalism business, Ms.’s debut as an insert in New York magazine showed tremendous potential, selling 300,000 copies in under one week. Ms. created a name for itself by addressing heavy-hitting issues like abortion and domestic violence which impacted many women’s lives but were often overlooked or stigmatized in popular culture. Ms.’s first issue famously contained a list of women, including Gloria Steinem, Anaïs Nin, and Billie Jean King, who admitted to having abortions before they were federally legalized through Roe v. Wade."—https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/1084
