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In her groundbreaking Columbia University dissertation, Kate Millett
proposed an end to patriarchy. Using passages from Henry Miller, Jean Genet and
Norman Mailer, Millett illustrated how men use sex to degrade women. Millett
assailed romantic love ("a means of emotional manipulation which the male is
free to exploit") and called for an end to monogamous marriage and the family.
The late 60's and early 70's became the second wave of the fight for equal
rights for women. At that time woman were only 3% of the lawyers in the country
and 7% of the doctors, earning 59% of the salaries given to men for similar
jobs. Millet used the $30,000 that she earned for the initial publication of
Sexual Politics to establish the Women's Art Colony Farm for writers
and visual artists.
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