Germaine Greer

Considered one of the most important feminist voices of the second wave feminism and a prominent advocate of women’s liberation, as well as being widely recognized for her controversial opinions on different topics Germaine Greer is an academic, writer, feminist and broadcaster. For more than thirty years, Greer’s work and opinion remain an important source of knowledge for present generations.

The focus of this essay will be on presenting a biography of Germaine Greer showing place of birth, studying achievements, books published and other works. Secondly, one aspect of her work as feminist writer, The Female Eunuch. Third, her contributions to society and to the Women’s Liberation movement in the 20th century. Also, controversies she created
Greer was born in Melbourne on 29 January 1939. She describes her Father as weak and absent and her mother as ‘’terrorized’ mother who took out her aggression on her daughter’ (Greer, cited in Merritt 2016). She attended all-girls Star of the sea Convent at Gardenvale, which Greer suggested helped her realise she did not agree with the Catholic Church and also encouraged her to embrace sexual liberationism (Merritt 2016). According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, she attended the University of Melbourne where she graduated with a BA honours in English and French Literature. Subsequently, she moved to Sydney and finished her MA in 1963. Afterwards, she obtained a commonwealth scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge where she was awarded a PhD in 1968. The same year, Greer married Paul du Feu and the marriage only lasted three weeks.

Greer wrote for the Push and OZ magazines as well as several books: The Female Eunuch in 1970, The Whole Woman (1999) among others. She also wrote essays on Aboriginals issues as well as environmental writings and most recently, Greer participates on Q&A show on ABC Australia. The Author lives in England but temporarily resides in Australia for work related reasons (People Power,
This clearly created controversy since Germaine considers herself a feminist and an attack like this towards a woman does not seem acceptable of someone who follows this ideology (Groer 2012).

Most recently, Greer has also expressed her opinion on transgender issues. The academic mentioned that she does not consider that post-operative transgender men are women (McMahon 2015). She claims that she is not against men being allowed to have the procedure performed but she suggested that simply because they have a sex change surgery that does not make them women (Saul 2015). Some suggest by saying this Greer has created more unnecessary negative views on transgender men who already go through a great deal of discrimination for simply trying to be what they feel they are (McMahon 2015).

Through the years, Germaine Greer has created some opposition. After writing, an essay called On Rage, which main topic was the explanation of aboriginal men’s behaviour in Australia after losing land, languages among other things Greer was criticized by indigenous professor Marcia Langton, who claimed Greer’s arguments were racist and that she should read more history (Wilson2008). Langton also accused the writer of merely looking for attention and not truly caring about indigenous issues (Wilson