Shulamith Firestone was a Canadian-American radical feminist. A central figure in the early development of radical feminism and second-wave feminism, Firestone was a founding member of three radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists.
Background
Shulamith Firestone was born on January 7, 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The second of six children and the first daughter of Orthodox Jewish parents Kate Weiss and Sol Feuerstein. In April 1945, when Firestone was four months old, her father took part in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.When she was a child, the family changed their surname to Firestone and moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Her father had converted to Orthodox Judaism when he was a teenager andexercised tight control over his children, with the zeal of a convert. Shulamith railed against the family's sexism; she was expected to make her brother's bed, "because you're a girl", her father told her. Shulamith had two sisters, Laya Firestone Seghi and Tirzah Firestone.
Education
Firestone attended the Rabbinical College of Telshe, near Cleveland, before receiving a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and a BFA degree in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1967.
Career
Firestone was a writer and activist, co-founder of feminist organizations, including Radical Women (1967), Redstockings (1969), and New York Radical Feminists (1969). On August 28, 2012, Firestone was found dead in her New York apartment by the building's owner. According to her sister, Laya Firestone Seghi, she died of natural causes.
Politics
By the time "The Dialectic of Sex" was published in 1970, Firestone had largely ceased to be politically active. She withdrew from politics in the early seventies.
Membership
Firestone was a founding member of three radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists.
