She attended the New England Conservatory of Music in the early 1960s, where she encountered teachers critical of social inequality in the United States.
This experience led her to embrace Marxism, the politics of Fidel Castro and ultimately radical feminism.
[1] She joined the Boston-area female liberation movement led by Roxanne Dunbar, which subsequently changed its name to Cell 16.
After reading Cell 16's radical feminist publication, No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation, Rockefeller decided to join the organization.
[4] After being infiltrated by Trotskyites and FBI agents, Cell 16 disassociated from its splinter group, Female Liberation, which was providing a front for recruiting aspiring feminists to Trotskyism.