“Herstory instead of history”: Radical feminist pioneer Robin Morgan dies

Robin Morgan, described as a godmother of the U.S. women's movement and a prominent writer, has died at a New York hospital at the age of 85, AP and other media reported.

Morgan was a close friend of Gloria Steinem, another figure widely regarded as a symbol of American feminism who died two days earlier at the age of 92. Morgan was born in Lake Worth, Florida, in 1941 and became a child actor at the age of 3. She later left acting as a teenager to become a writer.

While attending Columbia University in the 1960s, Morgan took part in the civil rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War. She later challenged sexism within progressive circles and helped lead the radical feminist movement.

Morgan coined “herstory,” a term meaning history written from a woman's perspective. She also designed the image of a red fist inside the female symbol, which became an emblem of the women's liberation movement. In the late 1960s, she was particularly active in the radical feminist group W.I.T.C.H., whose name stood for Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell.