It is still praised today for its unflinching portrayal of physical and psychological violence which occurs in women’s day to day lives.įollowing The Women’s Room, Marilyn went on to write six more novels which included The Bleeding Heart, Her Mother’s Daughter, Our Father, In the Name of Friendship, and her final novel, The Love Children, was published after her death. The Women’s Room was hugely successful and influential, it has sold nearly 20 million copies and has been translated into over 10 languages. Whilst at University, Mira discovers the security and support of female friendship and feminism against the backdrop of sweeping social change. Influenced by Marilyn’s personal experiences, the novel follows Mira Ward who lives as submissive housewife in the 1950s before separating from her husband and going to study at Harvard. In 1977, Marilyn published her most famous work The Women’s Room which contained the oft quoted remark ‘all men are rapists’ which is spoken by the novel’s protagonist. During her early years as an academic, Marilyn attributed her growing awareness of feminism to her disappointment in her marriage, the rape of her then 18 year old daughter in 1971 and reading Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics. Additionally, her thesis on James Joyce’s Ulysses was published to acclaim in 1976. When the couple divorced after seventeen years of marriage, Marilyn attended Harvard University to study for her Ph.D.Īs an academic, Marilyn’s work concentrated on the construction of the patriarchy and women’s history. She attended Hofstra College in 1951 to study literature and philosophy, and then after the birth of her two children, she returned to Hofstra to complete her Masters. Throughout their marriage, Marilyn set about educating herself, sometimes despite disapproval from her husband. Marilyn recalled that her mother was the dominant parent in her childhood she saw this as an early lesson in not bowing to male authority.īut her marriage to Robert French in 1950 was reportedly an unhappy one.

Marilyn was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1929 as Marilyn Edwards. Marilyn French was an American author and feminist scholar whose most prominent work was the classic feminist novel The Women’s Room.

Even men who are not actively keeping women down, but are profiting from women’s position, or who don’t mind things being the way they are – they are responsible too.

Beyond Power by Marilyn French