Rosalyn Baxandall obituary

Feminist historian and activist who helped to launch New York Radical Women

The feminist historian and activist Rosalyn Baxandall, who has died of kidney cancer aged 76, was a redoubtable rebel who combined a fierce desire for individual freedom with a lifelong commitment to social justice and egalitarian community.

In 1967, as the women’s liberation movement began, Ros helped to start the feminist protest group New York Radical Women, and later became a member of Redstockings. These groups started to redefine the scope of politics: women’s experiences of their bodies, of lesbianism, of housework, of childcare, rape or domestic violence ceased to be simply personal. They also broke taboos. Ros’s was the first voice heard at the dramatic 1967 abortion “speak out” in New York, describing undergoing an illegal termination.