Germaine Greer
Writer and academic, author of The Female Eunuch
Born 1939
Photo: Helen Morgan · CC BY 2.0
«Women have very little idea of how much men hate them.»
Germaine Greer published The Female Eunuch in 1970, one of the defining books of second-wave feminism, which was translated into more than a dozen languages within a year. She is also a Shakespeare scholar and a controversial public figure.
Key achievements
- The Female Eunuch, a defining text of second-wave feminism
- Professor of English literature at Warwick, 1998–2003
Universities
Melbourne, Victoria
Took a bachelor's degree in English and French literature in 1959.
Sydney, New South Wales
Took a master's degree in Romantic poetry in 1963 with first-class honours.
Cambridge, England
Took her PhD at Newnham College in 1968 on Shakespeare's early comedies.
Facts
- She wrote her doctorate on Shakespeare while simultaneously performing in a satirical television comedy series.
- The Female Eunuch sold out its second printing within days of publication.
- She bought and rewilded a stretch of Australian rainforest, funding it from her book royalties.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.