Radical Feminism

This strand of feminist ideas and practices has as its hallmarks a disdain for, if not rejection of, hierarchy and a commitment to cultural as well as political transformation. Seeking more than the reformist measures associated with liberal feminism, radical feminism can be seen as revolutionary or at least aiming at wholesale rather than piece-meal social change. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such feminist luminaries as Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Matilda Joslyn Cage, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, Ida Wells-Barnett, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman forged strong grounds for radical feminist theory. Their work was pivotal in, though not typical of, the first wave of feminism during that time period, which began receding from public attention as Western women's right to vote gained constitutional stature.

During ...