Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller (born 1943) is an American feminist, ecologist, and member of the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothe ...

. She was a member of Cell 16, a

radical feminist Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a Political radicalism, radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are al ...

organization, in the 1970s. She also founded the

Clivus Multrum Clivus Multrum is a type of composting toilet and the name of a company that markets this brand name of composting toilets. " Clivus" is Latin for incline or slope; "multrum" is a Swedish composite word meaning "compost room", thus a "Clivus Mul ...

company, which manufactures

composting toilet A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human waste into compost-like material. Composting is carried ou ...

Early life and education

Abby Rockefeller was born in 1943, the eldest daughter and second child of

David Rockefeller David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...

and Margaret McGrath. She has an older brother, David Jr., and four younger siblings,

Neva The Neva (russian: Нева́, ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it ...

, Peggy,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

, and

Eileen Eileen ( or ) is an Irish feminine given name anglicised from Eibhlín and may refer to: People Artists *Eileen Agar (1899–1991), British Surrealist painter and photographer *Eileen Fisher (born 1950), clothing retailer and designer *Eileen ...

. She attended the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music Music school, conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The ...

in the early 1960s, where she encountered teachers critical of

social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...

in the United States. This experience led her to embrace

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, the politics of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

and ultimately

radical feminism Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a Political radicalism, radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are al ...

Radical feminism

She joined the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-area female liberation movement led by Roxanne Dunbar, which subsequently changed its name to Cell 16. Along with the other Cell 16 members, Rockefeller promoted self-defense for women and became skilled in

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

in response to the frequent street harassment and sexual assaults women endured at the time. They set up a

Tae Kwon Do ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

studio in Boston and taught hundreds of women who, in turn, taught other women, becoming pioneers in self-defense for women. After reading Cell 16's radical feminist publication, ''No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation'', Rockefeller decided to join the organization. In issue 6, "Tell A Woman", published in May 1973, she contributed an article called "Sex: The Basis of Sexism", which posited that one driving force in sexism was male desire to access and control female sexuality for their own ends. After being infiltrated by

Trotskyites Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

and

FBI agent The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

s, Cell 16 disassociated from its splinter group Female Liberation, which was providing a front for recruiting aspiring feminists to Trotskyism.

Environmentalism

In the 1970s Rockefeller turned her attention to

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...

, focusing on

human waste Human waste (or human excreta) refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and faeces. As part of a sanitation system that is in place, human waste is collected, transported, treated a ...

. Rockefeller was the first American to install a composting system in her home in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, even though the technology had been around since the 1930s. In 1973, she founded the

company to manufacture

s. In December 1996, she published an essay titled "Civilization and Sludge: Notes on the History of the Management of Human Excreta" in ''Current World Leaders International Issues''. As of 2005, Clivus Multrum was still the "largest distributor of composting toilets for public use in North America".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockefeller, Abby American people of Scotch-Irish descent 1943 births Living people Rockefeller family Winthrop family American feminists Radical feminists American people of English descent American people of German descent