Maggie Doherty - Defending Kate Millett

This week, the woman credited with launching the second wave of the feminist movement, Kate Millett, died aged 82. Her 1970 book Sexual Politics sought to analyse patriarchal power in many ways, including deconstructing sex scenes written by three enormously influential male writers - Norman Mailer, D.H Lawrence and Henry Miller. The controversial book propelled her to fame and fortune but she remained ambivalent about her leading role in the feminist movement of the time. Maggie Doherty, a writer and academic based at Harvard University, has had work published in The New Republic, Dissent and the New Yorker. Last year she wrote an article defending the enduring legacy of Kate Millett's Sexual Politics for The New Republic.