Kate Millett

Not to be confused with Catherine Millet.

Kate Millett
Millett looks up and smiles. She wears glasses.
Photograph by Linda Wolf, 1970
BornKatherine Murray Millett
(1934-09-14)September 14, 1934
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedSeptember 6, 2017(2017-09-06) (aged 82)
Paris, France
Occupation
  • Writer
  • educator
  • artist
  • activist
Education
Notable worksSexual Politics (1970)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1965; div. 1985)​
  • Sophie Keir (see § Marriage)
Signature
Academic background
InfluencesSimone de Beauvoir

Katherine Murray Millett (September 14, 1934 – September 6, 2017) was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended the University of Oxford and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors after studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has been described as "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism", and is best known for her book Sexual Politics (1970),[1] which was based on her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. Journalist Liza Featherstone attributes the attainment of previously unimaginable "legal abortion, greater professional equality between the sexes, and a sexual freedom" in part to Millett's efforts.[2]

The feminist, human rights, peace, civil rights, and anti-psychiatry movements were some of Millett's principal causes. Her books were motivated by her activism, such as woman's rights and mental health reform, and several were autobiographical memoirs that explored her sexuality, mental health, and relationships. In the 1960s and 1970s, Millett taught at Waseda University, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and the University of California, Berkeley. Some of her later written works are The Politics of Cruelty (1994), about state-sanctioned torture in many countries, and Mother Millett (2001), a book about her relationship with her mother. Between 2011 and 2013, she won the Lambda Pioneer Award for Literature, received Yoko Ono's Courage Award for the Arts, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[3]

Millett was born and raised in Minnesota, and then spent most of her adult life in Manhattan and the Woman's Art Colony, established in Poughkeepsie, New York, which became the Millett Center for the Arts in 2012. Millett came out as a lesbian[4] in 1970, the year the book Sexual Politics was published. However, late in the year 1970 she came out as bisexual.[5][6] She was married to sculptor Fumio Yoshimura (1965 to 1985) and later, until her death in 2017, she was married to Sophie Keir.

  1. ^ "Kate Millett". Woman's History Month. Maynard Institute. March 20, 2012. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Daughterhood was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Millett, Kate | Women of the Hall". Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  4. ^ Sehgal, Parul; Genzlinger, Neil (September 6, 2017). "Kate Millett, Ground-Breaking Feminist Writer, Is Dead at 82". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Clendinen p. 99 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Paul D. Buchanan (July 31, 2011). Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-59884-356-9.