Florence Rosenfeld Howe (March 17, 1929 – September 12, 2020) was an American author, publisher, literary scholar, and historian who is considered to have been a leader of the contemporary feminist movement.

[1] Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 17, 1929,[2] Florence Howe was the daughter of Samuel, a taxi driver,[3] and Frances Stilly Rosenfeld, a bookkeeper.

[3] She taught African American children in a Mississippi freedom school during 1964 and chaired the Modern Language Association commission on the Status of Women in the Profession.

[3] In 1967, she signed a public statement declaring her intention to refuse to pay income taxes in protest against the U.S. war against Vietnam.

[3] Florence Howe was responsible in co-editing various literature pieces throughout the years, such as “With Wings: An Anthology of Literature By and About Disabled Women (1987); Traditions and the Talents of Women (1991); and No More Masks (1993).”[3] In 1982, Florence Howe published the Feminist Scholarship: The Extent of the Revolution, a journal article in which she wrote about her findings with feminism in higher education.

She lived on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, and prior to her death received hospice care for Parkinson's disease.

[11] The Florence Howe Award is an annual feminist scholarship acknowledging two outstanding essays by members of the Women's Caucus, one from the field of English and one from a foreign language.