Shulamith Firestone

When NYRW formed "consciousness raising groups", Firestone and Ellen Willis co-founded the radical feminist group Redstockings, named after the Blue Stockings Society, an 18th-century women's literary group. Redstocking members included Kathie Sarachild ("Sisterhood is Powerful") and Carol Hanisch ("the personal is political").

A documentary called Shulie was created depicting Firestone during her time as a student, and it outlined her journey to becoming a feminist figure and important author. The original documentary featuring Firestone was never released, but a recreation of it was. Firestone struggled with schizophrenia after her retirement from activism and suffered from the illness until her death in 2012.

On August 28, 2012, Firestone was found dead in her New York apartment by the building's owner. Alerted by neighbors, who had smelt the foul odor of her decomposing corpse from her apartment, her superintendent peered in through a window from the fire escape and saw her body on the floor. Her landlord, Bob Perl, said she had probably been dead about a months. According to her sister, Laya Firestone Seghi, she died of natural causes, but because of her family's staunchly Orthodox views, an official autopsy was never done to confirm or deny the theory that starvation was the cause of her death. According to reports, she lived in a reclusive fashion and had been in ill physical and mental health.

In 1998 she published Airless Spaces, a collection of fictional short stories based on her experiences being hospitalized for schizophrenia. Inspired by personal experience, this work highlights the lives and struggles of various characters in New York City battling with mental illness and poverty. Each narrative in the book addresses the difficulties of mental disorder, as well as the feelings of "shame, humiliation, fear, loneliness, and anxiety" that accompany it. There is a consistent presence of instability in the lives of each character in regards to economic and social status, along with mental state. "Airless Spaces" is said to be a reflection of the marginalization Firestone experienced resulting from her radical feminist ideals and lifestyle, as well as the hardships of individuals to escape from the dehumanizing aspects of the mental health field.

During her studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Firestone was the subject of a student documentary film. In the film, she is asked questions about her views on education, art, relationships, religion, and politics. She is also shown working on her painting and photography, presenting her artwork for critique by professors, and working part-time at a post office. Never released, the film was rediscovered in the 1990s by experimental filmmaker Elisabeth Subrin, who did a frame-by-frame reshoot of the original documentary. It was released in 1997 as Shulie winning two awards, including the 1998 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award. The film depicts Firestone as a young student and her journey into becoming one of the most notable second-wave feminists and feminist authors of the 20th century. In 1998, the film was honored with the Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award by the Los Angeles Film-Critics Association, receiving acknowledgement alongside films like Saving Private Ryan, A Bug's Life, and Rushmore. Two years later, the documentary received the "Experimental Award" from the New England Film and Video Festival. The documentary was praised by The New Yorker for its use of dialectical thought (a concept featured in Firestone's work) in the production of a film set decades prior to its filming.

In 1987, Shulamith's sister Tirzah stated, "it was when our father died that Shulie went into psychosis. She lost that ballast he somehow provided."

In May 1974, Firestone was called home to St. Louis following the news of her brother Daniel's death. She was told he died in a car crash, but later came to know the true cause of death, a gunshot wound to the chest. Her brother's apparent suicide shook the family's Jewish Orthodox beliefs and sent Shulamith Firestone into a battle with mental illness. Firestone refused to attend her brother's funeral and stated, "Whether murder or suicide, afterlife or no, [his death] contributed to my own growing madness." Following her brother's death, her parents, Sol and Kate Firestone, planned to emigrate to Israel, prompting an argument that ultimately resulted in Shulamith's disavowal of her parents. She stated in a certified letter that she had "dissolved her tie of blood."

In 1970, Firestone authored The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. Published in September of that year, the book became an influential feminist text. The Dialectic of Sex and the ideas presented within it became important in both cyberfeminism and xenofeminism, as her ideas were a precursor for other subjects regarding technology and gender. In her writing career Firestone also helped write and edit a magazine called Notes. Her final written text was Airless Spaces written in 1998, which consisted of short stories all relating to her experience with mental illness and schizophrenia.

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970) became a classic text of second-wave feminism. This was Firestone's first book and was published when she was just 25. In the book, Firestone sought to develop a materialist view of history based on sex. Also notable within the book is the ideal society Firestone creates, one void of the oppression of women. The Dialectic of Sex was perceived to be a Utopian manifesto dedicated to exploring some to the contradictions present in the United States at the time to an extreme. The book was met with both applause and outrage and it even made the best sellers list.

By the time The Dialectic of Sex was published in 1970, Firestone had largely ceased to be politically active. She withdrew from politics in the early seventies, moved to Saint Marks Place, and worked as a painter. In the late eighties, she became mentally ill.

Firestone co-founded New York Radical Feminists (NYRF) in 1969 with Anne Koedt after they left the Redstockings

Firestone participated in many protests and political actions regarding feminist issues, and she even organized the first abortion speak out. The speak out was held in March 1969 at Judson Memorial Church and consisted of twelve women of whom Firestone had convinced to share their personal accounts with the issue. The feminist groups that Firestone had helped found also participated in protests and street performances during their existence. Some actions included disrupting abortion law hearings and collecting at establishments that prohibited the attendance of women without male accompaniment. The women also participated in the "Burial of Traditional Womanhood" that took place at the Arlington National Cemetery 1968, in which a funeral was held for a dummy dressed to resemble the common housewife. Further actions were the releasing of mice in Madison Square Garden during a bridal fair, or the ogling of men on Wall Street to draw attention to sexual harassment.

With others from New York Radical Feminists, Firestone created and edited a feminist periodical, Notes, producing Notes from the First Year (June 1968), Notes from the Second Year (1970), and, with Anne Koedt as editor while Firestone was on leave, Notes from the Third Year (1971). Firestone utilized Notes as a form of radical, feminist propaganda that enlightened and educated female readers. The notes included topics such as the vaginal orgasm and The Personal is Political, which created discussion for radical feminism.

Firestone also published The Women's Rights Movement in the US: A New View in 1968. The essay focused on Firestone's belief that the movement had the ability to become revolutionary. In her essay, Firestone asserts that the women's rights movement has always been radical. She discusses 19th century suffragist, using examples of women taking on the church, white male power, and the "traditional" family structure. Her essay counters the minimization of women's struggles and the oppression they fought.

Firestone attended Telshe Yeshiva near Cleveland. She then attended Washington University in St. Louis and in 1967 earned a degree in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). While in Chicago she started her first Women's Liberation group, Westside.

In 1967, at 22, Firestone, along with nearly 2,000 other young activists, attended the National Conference for New Politics in Chicago, held from August 31 to September 1. Here, Firestone met Jo Freeman and the two bonded over their shared outrage in response to the dismissal of women's issues at the conference. The two women put forth a resolution that called for equitable marital and property laws and "complete control by women of their own bodies." The women were told their resolution was not important enough for a floor discussion. They eventually managed to have their statement added to the end of the agenda, but it was not discussed. The director, Willam F. Pepper, refused to recognize any of the women waiting to speak. When five women, including Firestone, ran to the podium to protest, Pepper patted Firestone on the head and said, "Cool down, little girl; we have more important things to talk about than women's problems." Shortly afterwards, Firestone and Freeman called a meeting that spawned the first Chicago women's liberation group. It was known as the Westside group because it met weekly in Freeman's apartment on Chicago's west side.

In October 1967, after establishing the Westside group, Firestone moved to New York to flee a physically abusive boyfriend. In an unpublished work, Firestone recalls the abuse she had been subjected to, including being hit so hard one of her teeth was knocked out of place.

Firestone synthesized the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and Simone de Beauvoir into a radical feminist theory of politics. She also acknowledged the influence of Lincoln H. and Alice T. Day's Too Many Americans (1964) and the 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich.

Shulamith Bath Shmuel Ben Ari Firestone (born Feuerstein; January 7, 1945 – August 28, 2012) was a Canadian-American radical feminist writer and activist. Firestone was a central figure in the early development of radical feminism and second-wave feminism and a founding member of three radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists. Within these radical movements, Firestone became known as "the firebrand" and "the fireball" for the fervor and passion she expressed towards the cause. Firestone participated in activism such as speaking out at The National Conference for New Politics in Chicago. Also while a member of various feminist groups she participated in actions including picketing a Miss America Contest, organizing a mock funeral for womanhood known as "The Burial of Traditional Womanhood", protesting sexual harassment at Madison Square Garden, organizing abortion speak outs, and disrupting abortion legislation meetings.

Firestone was born Shulamith bath Shmuel ben Ari Feuerstein in Ottawa, Canada on January 7, 1945. Firestone was the second of six children and the first daughter of parents Kate Weiss, a German Jew who fled the Holocaust, and Sol Feuerstein, a Brooklyn salesman. Firestone's parents were Orthodox Jews but her funeral would later be held at the Episcopal St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. In April 1945, when Firestone was four months old, her father took part in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.