5 Ways Hugh Hefner Changed The World

But a woman's right to have sex wasn't the only issue supported by the editor, though it surely could have been. Hugh was no hypocrite. A decade before Roe v. Wade, Playboy published pieces (in a men's magazine, no less!) defending abortion and a woman's right to choose. In 1965, according to Broadly, he launched the Playboy Foundation, "a non-profit that gave money to the Kinsey Institute, rape crisis centers, and the Clergy Consultation Service, an organization that connected women with abortion services." It even donated to the ACLU Women's Rights Project, garnering a thank you note from Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself.

And while women were certainly seen in the pages of the magazine, they did not go unheard. Hugh gave a platform (and a must-reach audience) to feminist writers, including Margaret Atwood and Germaine Greer.