Marilyn French

From the New York Times:

Marilyn French, a writer and feminist activist whose debut novel, “The Women’s Room,” propelled her into a leading role in the modern feminist movement, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 79 and lived in Manhattan.

Her most significant work since her illness was the four-volume “From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women,” published by Feminist Press and built around the premise that prevailing histories had denied women their past, present and future.

From the Guardian, Hilary Mantle gives a review of "From Eve to Dawn" in her article The War Against Women:

From earliest history to the twenty-first century, French has taken us on a terrible journey. She quotes a Buddhist text: "Her face resembles that of a saint; her heart is like that of a demon. . . . A woman has no home in the three worlds." French explains, "she does not exist in the past, present, or future." Her battle is just to become visible; to be accorded full humanity, not to be regarded as some transient natural phenomenon, or an animal created for male use.