Lands’ End Apologizes For Promoting Abortion Activist Gloria Steinem As A ‘Legend’, Loses Contracts With Catholic Schools

Lands’ End has scrubbed its website and any mention of abortion activist Gloria Steinem after a stream of backlash from customers. The clothing company initially promoted Steinem, who notoriously once stated that women “need” abortion, and her organization Fund for Women’s Equality, Inc. Lands’ End offered a promotion in which customers could have items monogrammed with the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) logo championed by Steinem and in return, the company would donate $3 to the abortion activist’s coalition the Fund for Women’s Equality, Inc. During the promotion, Lands’ End denoted Steinman as a “Legend” and did an interview and photoshoot with the prominent feminist activist. However, the company did not anticipate the stream of backlash from their notoriously conservative consumers, many of which purchase Catholic school uniforms from the company. As a result, Lands’ End has lost at least two Catholic school uniform contracts and was forced to scrub their website and any mention of Steinem from the company. Sadly for Lands’ End, the damage was already done, as the Lands’ End catalog featuring Steinem was already sent to consumers.

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Life News first reported the inclusion of abortion activist Gloria Steinem in the Lands’ End catalog, and on the “Legends” website feature. As was first reported, Lands’ End featured Gloria Steinem in a full-feature on their website, which included an interview and images from a Lands’ End photoshoot. The interview focused on Steinem’s work as a feminist and on her promotion of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The company offered customers the ability to have the ERA logo monogrammed on a variety of clothing items and accessories and in exchange the company promised to donate $3 from each monogrammed item to Gloria’s organization Fund for Women’s Equality. In the feature spot, Lands’ End noted that Gloria Steinem is a “Legend,” and that they were “honoring Gloria’s work.”

In the interview, Steinem focuses solely on the ERA and does not mention abortion.

“It’s a statement of principle. It just says that men and women have equal rights, and that equality under the law shall not be denied. From 1972 to 1982, we tried to get the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution, but we fell short by three states of getting it ratified. We’re still not part of the Constitution of the United States. One reason we need an Equal Rights Amendment is because nowhere in the Constitution does the word ‘women’ appear. We need a constitutional principle of female equality.”

However, that did not stop others, including Life News, from pointing out that Steinem is an abortion rights activist and that she was once quoted saying that women “need” abortions. This did not sit well with many of Lands’ End’s conservative customers. The company is used heavily in the private school uniform world, with many religious institutes utilizing the company’s clothing for school uniform purposes. However, with Steinem front and center on the website and in the Lands’ End catalog, at least two Catholic schools have stepped away from the company and will be moving their business elsewhere.

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As a result of the backlash, Lands’ End issues an apology and removed any mention of Steinem from the website and removed the featured pages about Gloria from the online catalog. However, the paper catalog is still in circulation featuring Steinem and many want to know what will be happening to the donations that Lands’ End has already secured for the Fund for Women’s Equality.

It appears, at least for Lands’ End, that including politics in their business was a step in the wrong direction. The company has now had to do damage control and have backtracked, noting that including Gloria Steinem in the “Legends” series was not to make a “political or religious stance.”

“We understand that some of our customers were offended by the inclusion of an interview in a recent catalog with Gloria Steinem on her quest for women’s equality. We thought it was a good idea and we heard from our customers that, for different reasons, it wasn’t. For that, we sincerely apologize. Our goal was to feature individuals with different interests and backgrounds that have made a difference for our new Legends Series, not to take any political or religious stance.”

Meanwhile, many others have come out to say they will not support Lands’ End unless the reinstate Gloria Steinem on the website and “stand up” for feminism.

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What do you think about Lands’ End’s response to the controversy over including abortion activist Gloria Steinman in their “Legends” series? Do you think Lands’ End simply didn’t do enough back research on Steinem, instead only looking into her work on the ERA? If Lands’ End knew about Steinem’s stance on abortion, do you think it would have swayed their decision to include her as part of the company’s initiative considering Lands’ End relies heavily on the religious community for the sale of school uniforms? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Image via Warren K. Leffler [Public domain], via United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division/digital ID ppmsc.03684]