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"Atlas Shrugged" And Third-Wave Feminism: An Unlikely Alliance, Paul Mcmahan

MA in English Theses

Ayn Rand and her work are often ignored by feminist critics because of Rand's personal life, her views on sex, and her vehement rejections of collectivism. Feminism has moved through overlapping waves known as first, second, and third-wave feminism. Throughout its life feminism has been marked by two strands: relational and individual. The strand of individual feminism has been more prevalent in Anglo-American feminism while relational feminism has been more predominant in European feminism. Atlas Shrugged was published six years prior to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique , a text generally agreed upon as the starting point for second-wave feminism. …