Meredith Jane Tax (September 18, 1942 – September 25, 2022) was an American feminist writer and political activist.

Early life

Tax was born on September 18, 1942, in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, the daughter of Archie Tax, a physician, and Martha Brazy Tax. She graduated from

Whitefish Bay High School Whitefish Bay High School is a comprehensive public secondary school located in the village of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, United States. Enrollment is around 950 students, in grades 9 through 12. The school newspaper, the ''Tower Times'', and the ...

Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin Whitefish Bay is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,954 at the 2020 census. A suburb north of Milwaukee along the shore of Lake Michigan, it is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. History In th ...

, in 1960. In 1961, she represented Brandeis on ''

College Bowl ''College Bowl'' (which has carried a naming rights sponsor, initially General Electric and later Capital One) is a radio, television, and student quiz show. ''College Bowl'' first aired on the NBC Radio Network in 1953 as ''College Quiz Bowl'' ...

''. She was a National Merit Scholar and was in the twelfth graduating class of

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

in 1964. She spent the next four years at

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public research university located in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' ...

, University of London, on Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson fellowships.

Career

Despite her "dreams of a gilded career in the arts", Tax gave up the idea of an academic career in favor of movement work and became a writer and an activist. After returning to the US, she became a founding member of

Bread and Roses "Bread and Roses" is a political slogan associated with women's suffrage and the labor movement, as well as an associated poem and song. It originated in a speech given by American women's suffrage activist Helen Todd; a line in that speech ab ...

, a socialist

women's liberation The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...

organization in Boston, and joined the October League. Tax's 1970 essay, "Woman and Her Mind: The Story of Daily Life", is considered a classic document of the US women's liberation movement. She is the author of a history book, ''The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880–1917'' (1980; 2001); two historical novels, ''Rivington Street'' (1982; 2001) and ''Union Square'' (1988; 2001), and a children's picture book, ''Families'' (1981; 1996, 1998), which was attacked by the Christian Coalition for its nontraditional approach to family structure. In 1995, she coauthored "The Power of the Word: Culture, Censorship and Voice", a pamphlet on gender-based censorship, with

Marjorie Agosin Marjorie is a female given name derived from Margaret, which means pearl. It can also be spelled as Margery, Marjory or Margaery. Marjorie is a medieval variant of Margery, influenced by the name of the herb marjoram. It came into English from th ...

Ama Ata Aidoo Ama Ata Aidoo (23 March 1942 — 31 May 2023) was a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright, politician, and academic. She was a Secretary for Education in Ghana from 1982 to 1983 under Jerry Rawlings's PNDC administration. Her first play, '' The Dil ...

Ritu Menon Ritu Menon is an Indian feminist, writer and publisher. Career In 1984, Menon co-founded Kali for Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing house, along with Urvashi Butalia, her longtime collaborator. In 2003, ''Kali for Women'' shu ...

Ninotchka Rosca Antonia Rosca-Peña (born December 17, 1946), known by her pen name Ninotchka Rosca, is a Filipina feminist, author, journalist, owl expert, and human rights activist in the Philippines best known for her 1988 novel '' State of War'' and for her ...

, and Mariella Sala. Tax's collected papers are at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

's Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture. Her oral history was done in 2004 by the Voices of Feminism program at the Sophia Smith Collection. She wrote ''Double Bind: The Muslim Right, the Anglo-American Left, and Universal Human Rights'', which criticizes left-wing support of right-wing

Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...

. She also wrote many political and literary essays, for ''The Nation'', ''The Village Voice'', ''The Guardian'', ''Dissent'', ''openDemocracy'', and other publications. Some of these essays, and her blog, can be found on her personal website. Tax was a member of the

Chicago Women's Liberation Union The Chicago Women's Liberation Union (CWLU) was an American feminist organization founded in 1969 at a conference in Palatine, Illinois. The main goal of the organization was to end gender inequality and sexism, which the CWLU defined as "the s ...

, and was the founding co-chair of the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse (CARASA), a pioneering reproductive rights organization. In 1986, Tax and

Grace Paley Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007), Goodside, was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist. Paley wrote three critically acclaimed collections of short stories, which were compiled in the Pulitzer Pr ...

were founding co-chairs of the

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...

n Center Women's Committee; she later became inaugural chair of

International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

's Women Writers' Committee and, in 1994, was founding president of Women's WORLD, a global free speech network of feminist writers. In 2011, she became chair of the board of the Centre for Secular Space, a think tank and advocacy group with a mission to oppose fundamentalism, amplify secular voices, and promote universality in human rights. In 2022, Tax wrote about the need for a feminist movement on par with

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...

and

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

, which was disputed by the organizers of the

Women's March Women's March may refer to: * Women's March on Versailles, a 1789 march in Paris * Women's Sunday, a 1908 suffragette march in London * Woman Suffrage Procession, a 1913 march and rally in Washington, D.C. * Women's March (South Africa), a 1956 ma ...

Personal life

Tax was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and was married first to Jonathan Schwartz and later to

Marshall Berman Marshall Howard Berman (November 24, 1940 – September 11, 2013) was an American philosopher and Marxist humanist writer. He was a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the City College of New York and at the Graduate Center of the ...

. She had two children, Corey Tax and Elijah Tax-Berman. She died on September 25, 2022, from

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

, in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. The town is know for their pancake throwing contest held ...

Books

* ''The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880–1917'' (1980; 2001). . * ''Rivington Street'' (1982; 2001). . * ''Union Square'' (1988; 2001). . * ''Families'' (1981; 1996, 1998). . * ''A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State'' (2016). .

References

External links

Full text of "Woman and Her Mind: The Story of Daily Life" by Meredith Tax

Full text of "The Power of the Word: Culture, Censorship and Voice" by Meredith Tax
with

, and Mariella Sala.
Meredith Tax at the Jewish Women's Archive

Meredith Tax's website

Women's WORLD

PEN American Center

Guide to the Meredith Tax Papers at Duke University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tax, Meredith 1942 births 2022 deaths American abortion-rights activists American feminist writers 20th-century American Jews American women's rights activists Jewish American feminists Writers from Milwaukee 21st-century American Jews Jewish women writers Activists from Wisconsin Brandeis University alumni Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London