Early life and education Firestone was born in
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on January 7, 1945. She was the second of six children and the first daughter of Kate Weiss, a German Jewish refugee who fled the
Holocaust, and Sol Feuerstein, a salesman from
Brooklyn. In April 1945, when Firestone was four months old, her father participated in the liberation of the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Activism In St. Louis, Firestone worked as an organiser with the local chapter of the
Congress of Racial Equality, while also critiquing them for not offering a class-independent analysis of women's oppression. Firestone expanded their theoretical framework to include the subordination of women as a distinct and foundational category of analysis. In her seminal 1970 work
The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, Firestone wrote, "Feminists have to question, not just all of Western culture, but the organization of culture itself, and further, even the organization of nature". At the conference, she met
Jo Freeman, and the two connected over their shared frustration regarding the lack of attention given to women's issues. Together, they submitted a resolution advocating for equitable marital and property laws and for "complete control by women of their own bodies". Following the conference, Firestone and Freeman organized a meeting that led to the formation of the first women's liberation group in Chicago. The group was the first women's liberation organization established in New York City. The group authored a manifesto titled ''New York Radical Women's Principles'', which emphasized a collective rejection of historical narratives centered solely on male perspectives. The manifesto argued that women’s history had been systematically suppressed and called on those who supported feminist ideals to unite in opposition to that suppression. It also explicitly stated the group's belief that violence was not a legitimate or effective means for achieving social change. The New York Radical Women implemented a psychological program considered radical at the time. Through this practice, participants sought to identify shared patterns, formulate generalizations, and observe their own feelings and experiences as a means of developing political awareness. The goal of these discussions was to revise existing social narratives and promote broader social change. Redstockings did not aim to become a service or large-scale membership organization. In the Redstockings Manifesto, the group asserted the systemic and class-based nature of women’s oppression. The manifesto stated: Like the New York Radical Women, Redstockings emphasized the need to revolutionize society at a psychological level. The group encouraged women to explore their individuality and personal experiences as a means to resist male dominance. It was believed that reclaiming personal power could lead to broader societal transformation.
New York Radical Feminists In late 1969, following her departure from Redstockings, Firestone co-founded the
New York Radical Feminists with
Anne Koedt. The event featured twelve women whom Firestone had encouraged to publicly share their personal experiences with abortion. The feminist groups that Firestone co-founded also engaged in a range of demonstrations and street performances. These actions included disrupting abortion law hearings and protesting at venues that restricted entry to women who were not accompanied by men. One notable demonstration was the "Burial of Traditional Womanhood," held in 1968 at
Arlington National Cemetery, where participants conducted a symbolic funeral for a dummy representing the stereotypical
housewife. Additional actions included releasing
mice at
Madison Square Garden during a bridal fair, intended to disrupt the event and critique commercialized representations of marriage, and participating in public ogling of men on
Wall Street as a means of drawing attention to the issue of
sexual harassment.
Post-political activity By the time
The Dialectic of Sex was published in October 1970, Firestone had withdrawn from political activism. In the early 1970s, she moved to
St. Marks Place and worked as a painter. She pursued a multimedia project of her own, described as a “female Whole Earth Catalogue”, which led her to take up a summer fellowship at an art school in
Nova Scotia. Following that, she worked as a typist at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology offices in
Cambridge.
Struggle with mental illness In the mid-1970s, Firestone began experiencing symptoms of mental illness. According to Susan Brownmiller, already in the first half of the 1970s Firestone blamed Brownmiller's actions for her deteriorated state. In May 1974, Firestone returned to her family home in
St. Louis after learning of the death of her brother, Daniel, who had not spoken to her since beating her over relinquishing religious observance in her
sophomore year, and had also abandoned his religion since. Initially informed that he had died in a car accident, Firestone later discovered that the actual cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest; the apparent suicide was concealed by the family until an Orthodox burial had been completed. Firestone refused to attend her brother's funeral and later wrote, “Whether murder or suicide, afterlife or no, [his death] contributed to my own growing madness.” In 1977, on hearing that her parents, Sol and Kate Firestone, were about to
emigrate to Israel, she traveled to St. Louis to collect her paintings. After falling out with her father, who threatened to disown her, she formally disavowed her parents in a certified letter. A commemorative essay by journalist
Susan Faludi, published in
The New Yorker several months later, provided additional details, citing Firestone’s long-term struggle with schizophrenia and suggesting that self-induced starvation may have been a contributing factor. A memorial service was held in her honor. ==Writing==