Steinem's undercover exposé on working conditions at the New York Playboy Club appears in Show magazine.
In May 1963, Show magazine published the first installment of Gloria Steinem's now-famous two-part exposé, "A Bunny's Tale." To research the piece, Steinem had gone undercover, taking a job as a "Bunny" waitress at the New York Playboy Club under an assumed name.
Her firsthand account revealed the exploitative labor practices behind the glamorous public image of the Playboy Club: demeaning costume requirements, invasive physical examinations, poor pay after mandatory deductions, and management's objectification of the women who worked there. The piece was groundbreaking in its use of immersive, participatory journalism to expose gender-based labor exploitation.
Although Steinem later expressed frustration that the assignment threatened to typecast her as a "Bunny" writer rather than a serious journalist, the piece is now recognized as an important precursor to the muckraking, feminist-informed journalism she would practice for the rest of her career. It anticipated later investigative work on workplace conditions and gender discrimination.
"A Bunny's Tale" remains one of Steinem's most widely cited early works, later adapted into a 1985 television film, and is frequently taught as an example of undercover investigative reporting used in service of social critique.