1968: The Global Revolutions

In 1970, Kate Millet published Sexual Politics, a work of feminist critical theory she had previously defended as her doctoral thesis at Columbia University. While a graduate student, she was fired from her teaching position at Barnard College for helping students organize during the 1968 protests. But, following her graduation, she quickly became one of second-wave feminism’s most important voices. Also an artist, filmmaker, and teacher, Millet was a prolific writer and theorist, producing ten books tracing the institutional functioning of patriarchal hegemony. Sexual Politics, specifically, traced and revealed anti-female expression in major works of nineteenth and twentieth century literature, illuminating the hypocrisies inherent in the canon.