Susan Brownmiller is an American feminist journalist, author, and activist best known for her 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. Brownmiller argues that rape had been hitherto defined by men rather than women, and that men use, and all men benefit from the use of, rape as a means of perpetuating male dominance by keeping all women in a state of fear. In 1995, the New York Public Library selected Against Our Will as one of 100 most important books of the Twentieth Century. Brownmiller also participated in civil rights activism, joining CORE and SNCC during the sit-in movement and volunteering for Freedom Summer in 1964, wherein she worked on voter registration in Meridian, Mississippi. Returning to New York, she began writing for The Village Voice and became a network TV newswriter at the American Broadcasting Company, a job she held until 1968. She first became involved in the Women's Liberation Movement in New York City in 1968, by joining a consciousness-raising group in the newly formed New York Radical Women organization. 

February 15th, 1935 in Brooklyn  /  Died:   May 24th, 2025