‘Today’s revolutionary feminists are not without precedent,’ the Observer noted in 1976, placing second-wave feminism in its historical context with a tribute to women who fought ‘for political and for socio-sexual revolution’. (The article was written by a man.)
Implacable opponent of China’s Manchu regime Ch’iu Chin (1875-1907) ‘rode horses astride, excelled in sword fighting, made bombs, drilled women fighters, organised secret armies’. She devoted much of her energy to the plight of women, founding a feminist newspaper and protesting against enforced marriage, concubinage (‘truly a hell on earth’) and foot binding.
