American feminist, poet and editor Robin Morgan dies at 85
American feminist, poet, essayist and editor Robin Morgan has died at the age of 85. Her death was confirmed by the Women’s Media Center, an organization she co-founded with Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem, TimesLIVE reports.
Women’s Media Center President Julie Burton called Morgan one of the architects of the modern women’s movement and noted her creativity and global leadership in the fight for justice and equality. The statement did not specify the date, place or cause of Morgan’s death.
Participant in the feminist movement
In the 1960s and 1970s, Morgan was one of the prominent figures of second-wave feminism. In 1968, she was among the organizers of the first protest against the Miss America pageant. During the action, participants threw bras into a “freedom trash can”; this episode was later mistakenly retold as bra burning.
In 1970, Morgan edited the essay collection Sisterhood is Powerful, which is considered one of the key texts of the modern women’s movement. She later published Sisterhood is Global in 1984 and Sisterhood is Forever in 2002. For several years, Morgan also served as editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine.
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Morgan is credited with introducing the term “herstory” — a feminist reinterpretation of the word “history” — as well as popularizing the symbol of a clenched fist within the women’s symbol. Her poetry was quoted at feminist rallies.
From child actress to activist
Morgan was born in 1941 in Lake Worth, Florida, and grew up in New York. As a child, she worked as a model, hosted the radio show Little Robin Morgan and appeared on the program Juvenile Jury. From 1949 to 1957, she acted in the television comedy series Mama.
As an adult, Morgan took part in movements for civil rights and an end to the Vietnam War. She helped found the feminist groups New York Radical Women and Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, known as WITCH. In 1984, she became a co-founder of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute think tank, and in 2005 she launched the Women’s Media Center together with Steinem and Fonda.
Morgan wrote more than 20 books, including the memoir Saturday’s Child, the collection The Word of a Woman: Feminists Dispatches, and the poetry books Monster and Dark Matter. In her later years, she hosted a syndicated radio program and continued her public activities after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
