Millett, Kate (Katharine Murray Millett), 1934–2017, American feminist author and activist, b. St. Paul, Minn., B.A. Univ. of Minn., 1956, M.A. Oxford, 1958, Ph.D. Columbia, 1968. Her pioneering feminist best seller, Sexual Politics (1970), was an influential study of patriarchal society through the lens of literature and a polemical dissection and condemnation of men's domination of women, which she viewed as the result of the influence of the family and other societal institutions. Subsequent books were often autobiographical: Flying (1974), on the difficulties caused by sudden fame and the diclosure of her bisexuality; Sita (1977), on her ill-starred romance with an older female colleague; The Loony Bin Trip (1990), on her confinement in mental institutions due to bipolar illness; A.D. (1995), a memoir of her aunt; and Mother Millett (2001), on her relationship with her mother. She also wrote The Basement: A True Story of Violence in an American Family (1979), Going to Iran (1982), and The Politics of Cruelty: An Essay on the Literature of Political Imprisonment (1990). Her first interest was sculpture, and she created scuptures and installations on social themes for many years; she also taught.
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