Published in 1970, The Female Eunuch was a bestseller, quickly becoming one of the key texts in the feminist canon and bringing international acclaim for its author Germaine Greer.

The popular teacher, writer and polemicist spoke to Martha Kearney as part of Hay Festival’s annual Hamlin Lecture, which was on the theme of liberation. Greer has said on the topic: “I’m a liberation feminist, not an equality feminist. Equality is a profoundly conservative aim and it won’t achieve anything.”

In this clip, which was recorded for Talking Books at Hay, Greer describes the context in which The Female Eunuch was written – and its memorable structure, which divided her argument into topics such as ‘curves’ and ‘hair’. She explains why she thinks women today are “like newts” and why she believes the situation for women is actually worse now than when she wrote her ground-breaking book.

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