Susan Brownmiller

Brooklyn-born Susan Brownmiller attended Cornell University for two years and later studied acting in New York City. In January 1971 she attended a gathering in a New York City church in which several dozen women testified about their experiences of rape. She decided to “give rape a history” and spent four years researching at the New York Public Library—where, she later said, the card catalogue had more entries for rapeseed than rape. The book borne of that research, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, is considered a foundational text of gender studies.