Mary Daly, the feminist philosopher and teacher who tangled with Boston College (and others) over the last five decades, has died at age 81.
From our profile:
Raised Roman Catholic but prevented by Catholic colleges from studying philosophy, she instead earned a doctorate in English in the U.S. then two more, in philosophy and theology, in Switzerland. Ironically, Jesuit-run [Boston College] then hired her to teach.
…Influenced by thinkers ranging from Thomas Aquinas to French feminist Simone de Beauvoir to Virginia Woolf, she developed a sweeping analysis of “patriarchy” as the root of women’s oppression and of all social ills in which people are treated as objects.
More directly, the opening quote from her own website:
“Women of the world unite!
Stand up and fight!
Say our own names!
Go up in flames!”
See our full Mary Daly biography >>