Susan Brownmiller

Susan Brownmiller (February 15, 1935 – May 24, 2025) was an American feminist, journalist and activist. She was best known for her pioneering work on the politics of rape in Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (1975). The book argued that rape was a crime of power and violence, not passion. Her book also helped create laws that made it easier to prosecute rapists.

Early life
Brownmiller was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Mae and Samuel Warhaftig, a lower-middle-class Jewish couple. She was raised in Brooklyn and was the only child of her parents.Susan Brownmiller Papers, Harvard Library catalog listing (accessed June 3, 2010).Susan Brownmiller, "An Informal Bio", susanbrownmiller.com; accessed June 4, 2010. She later took the pen name Brownmiller, legally changing her name in 1961.

Brownmiller studied at Cornell University for two years, but did not graduate. She later studied acting in New York City. She appeared in two off-Broadway productions.Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs (2005), chapter 2.

Activism
Brownmiller also participated in civil rights activism. She joined CORE during the sit-in movement and volunteered for Freedom Summer in 1964. She first became involved in the Women's Liberation Movement in New York City in 1968. There she joined a consciousness-raising group in the newly formed New York Radical Women organization.Susan Brownmiller.com: An Informal Bio 

Brownmiller went on to co-ordinate a sit-in against Ladies' Home Journa in 1970, began work on Against Our Will after a New York Radical Feminists speak-out on rape in 1971, and co-founded Women Against Pornography in 1979. 

She continued to write and speak on feminist issues, including a recent memoir and history of Second Wave radical feminism. She wrote a memoir called In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution in 1999.In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution  ()

Brownmiller said that rape has been defined by men rather than women before she released her book. In her book, she said that men use rape as a means of continuing male dominance by keeping all women in a state of fear. All men benefit from this. 

She was an Adjunct Professor of Women's & Gender Studies at Pace University in New York City.

Personal life
She called herself as "a single woman", even though "I was always a great believer in romance and partnership." She never married.

Brownmiller died on May 24, 2025 at a hospital in New York City from a long-illness at the age of 90.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Susan Brownmiller.com
 Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive
 1989 audio interview with Susan Brownmiller  by Don Swaim

Category:1935 births
Category:2025 deaths
Category:American activists
Category:American feminist writers
Category:Jewish American writers
Category:Time People of the Year
Category:Actors from New York City
Category:American autobiographers
Category:Journalists from New York City
Category:Academics from New York City