Born: 14 September 1934, United States
Died: 6 September 2017
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Katherine Murray Millett
American writer, educator, artist, and activist Kate Millett was a major influence in second-wave feminism, and was also an advocate for human rights, peace and civil rights. She fought against psychiatric overreach, having written about her own experience being involuntarily committed in her 1990 book The Loony Bin Trip, one of several autobiographical books that she published.
But it was her 1970 book Sexual Politics, based on her doctoral dissertation, for which Millett was best known. The bestseller sold 80,000 copies in its first year and critiqued patriarchy in Western society and literature, questioning its origins, arguing that gender-based oppression was both political and cultural and asserting that the key to sexual revolution was undoing traditional family structures. Also in 1970, Millett came out first as a lesbian, then identifying as bisexual.
Millett was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors after studying at St Hilda’s College, Oxford in 1958. For most of her adult life, she lived in Manhattan and the Woman’s Art Colony in Poughkeepsie, New York, which became the Millett Center for the Arts in 2012.
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Katherine Murray Millett was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She earned first-class honors at the University of Oxford, becoming the first American woman to do so. Her influential book, “Sexual Politics” (1970), emerged from her Columbia University doctoral dissertation. Millett’s advocacy spanned feminism, human rights, and mental health reform. She taught at renowned institutions, including Waseda University, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and the University of California, Berkeley. Notable works include “The Politics of Cruelty” (1994) and “Mother Millett” (2001). Millett’s contributions earned her recognition, including the Lambda Pioneer Award and induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.