In Memoriam: Kate Millett, a key milestone in feminist tradition

Abstract

In this semblance we focus on understanding what Kate Millett (1934-2017) gathers from the legacy that precedes her, what are her specific contributions to women's human rights - in education, politics and sexuality - and how it connects with the demands that contemporary feminism is now making. Kate Millett cannot be understood without knowing Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan, from whom she inherited critiques of androcentrism and sexism in education, each respectively. Both legacies are analyzed and continued in the wake of the discovery that “The personal is political”. In this way, in her philosophy, the concepts of politics, gender and patriarchy are resignified, feeding the later feminist thought and situating the sexuality of women in their center.