Diana E. H. Russell is a radical feminist writer and activist. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to England in 1957, and then to the United States of America in 1961. For the past 25 years she has been engaged in research on sexual violence

Sexual violence

Sexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...

 against women and girls. She has written numerous books and articles on rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

 (including marital rape), femicide

Femicide

Femicide was first used in England in 1801 to signify "the killing of a woman." In 1848, this term was published in Wharton's Law Lexicon, suggesting that it had become a prosecutable offense. Another term used is feminicide.-First feminist definition:...

, incest

Incest

Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...

, misogynist murders of women, and pornography

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

. For her book The Secret Trauma, she was co-recipient of the 1986 C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills

Charles Wright Mills was an American sociologist. Mills is best remembered for his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination in which he lays out a view of the proper relationship between biography and history, theory and method in sociological scholarship...

 Award.

Russell was a key organizer of the First International Tribunal on Crimes against Women

International Tribunal on Crimes against Women

The International Tribunal on Crimes against Women was a people's tribunal which took place on March 4-8, 1976 in Brussels. The event was created with the intention to "make public the full range of crimes , both violently brutal and subtly discriminatory , committed against women of all...

, in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

in March 1976.

External links

• Homepage
• Diana Russell on web radio, June 26, 2000