"Radical feminism got sexual politics recognized as a public issue. They sparked the drive to legalize abortion and were the first to demand total equality in the so-called private sphere."
--Ellen Willis, Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism, 1984
At a basic level, radical feminism can be viewed as the theory that defines patriarchy as a system of power that leads to the oppression of women, with an underlying belief that males and male-dominated systems are superior. The goal of radical feminists, beginning in the Second Wave of the women's movement have questioned this supposition and have called for a dramatic alteration of society in order to overcome female oppression.
According to Echols, in the late 1960s, small and informal groups of radical women began to meet to discuss the problems they were experiencing in their lives that they ultimately began to recognize as a symptom of male supremacy. Out of these early discussions grew the larger radical feminist movement. They argued that women made up a sex-class, that the "personal is political" and that unlike other types of critiques at the time (associated with the New Left Movement), gender - rather than class or other social problems - was at the heart of women's problems.
As with other subsets of the feminist movement, radical feminism largely grew out female involvement and empowerment associated with other social movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and the larger radical movement opposed to capitalism. They made important contributions to the areas of family, marriage, love, normative heterosexuality, rape, contraception and abortion rights, and the media and pornography industry's objectification of women. Many argue that they affected other forms of the movement including successfully moving liberal feminists further to the left and those involved in other social movements toward feminism. In addition, the current concept of cultural feminism developed largely out of the ideology and work of early radical feminists.
As its name would suggest, radical feminists are not concerned with working within the existing frameworks of society, such as liberal feminists. They are focused on radically altering the basic structure of society that allows for the patriarchy, strict sexual roles and divisions, and ultimately the oppression of women.
"In a museum, when male supremacy is dead.
I'd like my work to be an anthropological artifact from an extinct, primitive society."
I'd like my work to be an anthropological artifact from an extinct, primitive society."
--Andrea Dworkin, when asked by an interviewer how she would like to be remembered
Early Radical Feminist:
Her Life and Contributions
Although radical feminism has largely been viewed within the context of the Second Wave of the women's movement, it is also important to acknowledge early radical feminists who made important contributions to the work of those that came later. Emma Goldman was one such feminist. Having lived from 1869-1940, Goldman was a radical anarchist and clearly dedicated her life and her writings to creating a radically new social order. She was heavily influenced by her early life in the Russian Empire and as a member of the working-class after arriving in the United States.
Some of the issues she championed would later become important causes for Second Wave radical feminists as well, such as sexual freedom and birth control, equality in all societal, personal and political realms for women, and worker's rights. Goldman made other important contributions regarding political and economic problems, she might rightfully be viewed as having her most radical opinions in regard to women's rights. She critiqued what she viewed as the patriarchal family order, repression of female sexuality and strict reproductive pressures. She also argued in favor of financial freedom for all women, and unlike other anarchists at this time, she did not believe that women's problems would simply be taken care of by bringing about a new social order and deserved special attention.
Criticisms
In her article, Emma Goldman: A Voice for Women?, Donna Farmer details some of the contemporary criticisms of Goldman in relation to feminist theory and practice. Some have argued that Emma Goldman was actually too conservative on 'the woman question' and that although she addressed women's issues in her writings, she did not go far enough to address problems through her actions because of her extreme focus on fighting capitalism. Due to her communist and anarchist beliefs, other feminists have argued that her disdain for the women's suffrage movement was harmful to women and ignored a basic inequality of the time.
The International Socialist Review also provides an overview of her life and works including the controversy surrounding her during her life, and other contemporary criticisms, including the idea that she was merely a 'sideline critic' whose goals were largely left unrealized upon her death.
"I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases."
--Emma Goldman, 1897
Learn more about Emma Goldman at the Jewish Women's History Center and read more of her words at The Anarchist Library or in her autobiography Living My Life.
Contemporary Radical Feminist:
Her Life and Contributions
Shulamith Firestone was born in 1945 and has become best known as a feminist theorist and for her book The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. In addition to her published works, she also made significant contributions to the radical feminist movement through her work with founding three important radical groups: The Westside Group, an early consciousness-raising group she co-founded with Jo Freeman; as one of the co-founders of the New York Radical Women; and as the co-founder of Redstockings with Ellen Willis.
Some of her more controversial but important contributions to the feminist lexicon at the time included her critique of the "barbaric" nature of pregnancy, painful childbirth and the family structure framed through Marxist ideology. In The Dialectic of Sex, her ultimate conclusion is that the only way to overcome sex discrimination is to eliminate the difference between the sexes. Many feminists saw her critique as rightfully calling on women to take back control of their reproduction in order to achieve equality.
Since her earlier feminist work, Firestone has largely disappeared from view and reportedly suffers from mental illness. Her last published work was Airless Spaces, which was a collection of her short stories on mental illness and institutions in 1998.
Criticisms
Shulamith Firestone's groundbreaking book The Dialectic of Sex has influenced feminists since its publication in 1970, when she was just 25 years old. However, several critiques have emerged from her radical take on the way women can achieve liberation (through control of reproductive functions). Such critics include other influential feminists including bell hooks, Angela Davis, and Margaret A. Simons who have argued that Firestone's work is often grounded in racism and stereotyping. Margaret Simons discusses Firestone's racist undertones in the Dialectic of Sex in her book Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism: "Her discussion is marked by racist stereotypes and an insensitivity to the oppression of black women" (33).
Contemporary conservative commentators such as Midge Decter have argued that Firestone and others including Simone de Beauvoir and Margaret Sanger were dangerous to the existing family structure in America. They believe such radical feminists are arguing for Hitler-style eugenics and population controls and favor forced birth control and have a "loathing of sex, marriage, babies, and motherhood" found in Decter's The Nine Lives of Population Control.
Learn more about Shulamith Firestone at the Encyclopedia of World Biographies and read more of her own words at the Duke University Special Collections Library and the Marxists Internet Library.
Some of her more controversial but important contributions to the feminist lexicon at the time included her critique of the "barbaric" nature of pregnancy, painful childbirth and the family structure framed through Marxist ideology. In The Dialectic of Sex, her ultimate conclusion is that the only way to overcome sex discrimination is to eliminate the difference between the sexes. Many feminists saw her critique as rightfully calling on women to take back control of their reproduction in order to achieve equality.
Since her earlier feminist work, Firestone has largely disappeared from view and reportedly suffers from mental illness. Her last published work was Airless Spaces, which was a collection of her short stories on mental illness and institutions in 1998.
Criticisms
Shulamith Firestone's groundbreaking book The Dialectic of Sex has influenced feminists since its publication in 1970, when she was just 25 years old. However, several critiques have emerged from her radical take on the way women can achieve liberation (through control of reproductive functions). Such critics include other influential feminists including bell hooks, Angela Davis, and Margaret A. Simons who have argued that Firestone's work is often grounded in racism and stereotyping. Margaret Simons discusses Firestone's racist undertones in the Dialectic of Sex in her book Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism: "Her discussion is marked by racist stereotypes and an insensitivity to the oppression of black women" (33).
Contemporary conservative commentators such as Midge Decter have argued that Firestone and others including Simone de Beauvoir and Margaret Sanger were dangerous to the existing family structure in America. They believe such radical feminists are arguing for Hitler-style eugenics and population controls and favor forced birth control and have a "loathing of sex, marriage, babies, and motherhood" found in Decter's The Nine Lives of Population Control.
"Sex class is so deep as to be invisible...But for the first time in some countries, the preconditions for feminist revolution exit - indeed, the situation is beginning to demand such a revolution."
--Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex, 1979
Learn more about Shulamith Firestone at the Encyclopedia of World Biographies and read more of her own words at the Duke University Special Collections Library and the Marxists Internet Library.
Other Radical Feminists:
Note: this list is by no means exhaustive, but will hopefully lead you to learning more about radical feminism and other radical feminists not listed here
Note: this list is by no means exhaustive, but will hopefully lead you to learning more about radical feminism and other radical feminists not listed here
