The majority of the book comprises discussions of some thorny topics such as prostitution and pornography (‘sexual-exploitation industries’), rape culture in the United States and, most controversially, transgender rights. More broadly, Jensen believes radical feminism’s critique of patriarchy is central to challenging larger systems of domination and subordination such as institutionalised racism, imperialism and capitalism.

Today, having spent decades engaging with radical feminism, Jensen explains feminism should be seen as ‘not a threat to men, but a gift to us.’ Moreover, patriarchy’s harsh system of hierarchy and domination harms many men too – something Jensen highlights by writing about how western society’s dominant, toxic masculinity has had a detrimental effect on much of his own life.

Jensen argues that although ‘each individual man in patriarchy is not at every moment actively engaged in the oppression of women… men routinely act in ways that perpetuate patriarchy and harm women.’ For Jensen, the central tenet of radical feminism is the ‘understanding that men’s subordination of women is a product of patriarchy’, a hierarchical system of domination and subordination based on ‘power-over’ rather than ‘power-with’. With The End of Patriarchy, he makes a strong, often deeply personal, case for radical feminism, which he believes has lost significant ground to individualistic liberal feminism and postmodern feminism in the broader culture and academia, respectively. A professor of journalism at the University of Texas, Robert Jensen has a long history of activism focussing on US foreign policy, progressive journalism, climate change and pornography.

Personal Effects by Robert A. Jensen