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The Female Eunuch

by Germaine Greer, Jennifer Baumgardner (Introduction)

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 2,157 ratings · 92 reviews

The clarion call to change that galvanized a generation.
When Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch was first published it created a shock wave of recognition in women, one that could be felt around the world. It went on to become an international bestseller, translated into more than twelve languages, and a landmark in the history of the women's movement. Positing that sexua...more

Paperback, 400 pages

Published March 5th 2002 by Farrar Straus Giroux (first published 1970)

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May 12, 2011 Praj rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I adore men, I love my cigarettes and scotch, take pleasure in my womanly curves; simultaneously I greatly want women to obtain their freedom of rights.

Feminism may be an archaic phenomenon in the urban world yet it is still in the nascent form in numerous authoritarian patriarchal configurations and societies plagued with female foeticide. This manuscript does justice to such dwellings where women irrespective to their economical standing bear subjugation to various norms of religion and cultu...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Declan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Female Eunuch turned 40 this year and in light of this I elected to pick it up. It actually disarmed me. It was clear, the chapters were concise and the arguments never delved into rant. It's really quite exceptional that Greer thought it would swiftly date and fall off the radar. The Romance chapter is biting and totally hilarious and Work is so well-voiced as to weaken the surrounding chapters by comparison. However, I can't go without saying I was nagged by several major criticisms throug...more The Female Eunuch turned 40 this year and in light of this I elected to pick it up. It actually disarmed me. It was clear, the chapters were concise and the arguments never delved into rant. It's really quite exceptional that Greer thought it would swiftly date and fall off the radar. The Romance chapter is biting and totally hilarious and Work is so well-voiced as to weaken the surrounding chapters by comparison. However, I can't go without saying I was nagged by several major criticisms throughout:

1. Greer is very weak in dealing with psychology (see: Soul). I feel uncomfortable with the fact that the book is shakily propped up by outmoded Freudian thought. There's almost a total lack of breadth beyond Freud on a topic so central to her argument. It's uncomfortable in turn given the inextricable misogyny of said Freudian though - which Greer subjects to none of the same degree of scrutiny as the studies examining intellectual sex differences (genuinely scientific in method). This brings me to my next point.
2. Greer leans towards classifying The Female Eunuch as a scientific text (particularly towards the start of the book) - a pretty Freudian conceit in itself. In her pointedly unscientific (and pre-Foucaultian) school of thought, "nervous diseases, painful menstruation, unwanted pregnancies, accidents of all kinds, are all evidence of women's energies destroying them". It's an anthropological text at best, and one weighed down by dated ideas at that.
3. A lack of distancing from the vicious and ever-dogmatic Valerie Solanas; inclusion of the infamous "woman must make herself a faggot" pearl didn't do a whole lot for me, nor for Greer's integrity.

However, let it be said that we're dealing with a text more often criticised and touted than read. Forty years on, we still have such misguided critiques as Louis Nowra's 'The Better Self'. Contrary to Nowra's claims, The Female Eunuch is not a radical text, doesn't "invite women to taste their own menstrual blood", doesn't call for the total surrender of clothes and cosmetics, doesn't propose womankind move to ersatz Italian farmhouses, and for my money isn't anywhere near as homophobic as suggested. I'd agree with Nowra on the impact of the work; though I'm without the years to gauge the progress of Greer's Freedom, I suppose it's telling enough that the book was ever termed "radical". It's of simple yearnings and full of heart.(less)

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Dec 31, 2010 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was fascinating and made me rethink being a woman. It deals with the suppression of the female intellect, identity, and psychological development. My soon-to-be-husband was NOT happy I read this - I really reacted to what I was reading. I simmered down eventually.

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Jan 05, 2013 Oh rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

despite efforts to like this book, upon the third read i can honestly say i s'll never touch it again.

personally i do not believe feminism to be as much the rejection of male chauvinism and the transcendence of it. in this vein, women must master their true selves rather than attempt to master the men around them. in having spent years attempting mastery, as documented in the dissected power struggles that form the basis of chapters such as 'misery', women too have played a part in the 'nuclear...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Emma Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book not only because of it's historical significance but because a friend mad a blog post about it while having not read it basically saying Greer was an self-important idiot and I really hate ignorance.

Reading this book as a feminist in 2010 there are things about it I don't agree with. I definetley have problems with the blatant transphobia which is a theme through Greer's writings, and she has a rather patchy idea about homosexuality. Some of the things she talks abuot are o...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Virgilio Machado rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The publication of Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch in 1970 was a landmark event, raising eyebrows and ire while creating a shock wave of recognition in women around the world with its steadfast assertion that sexual liberation is the key to women's liberation. Today, Greer's searing examination of the oppression of women in contemporary society is both an important historical record of where we've been and a shockingly relevant treatise on what still remains to be achieved.

Like a woman, this...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Rhonda Keith Stephens rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was hugely influential on me and my girlfriends when we read it as college girls in the 1970s. Greer was a scholarly and entertaining writer, and we were all excited to find out how much we were hated just for being females. Over the years I began to question some of her assertions that had seemed so convincing: e.g, it would be better for children to be raised by Italian peasants so their educated, ambitious, free-wheeling mothers could do important things, for instance, and go visit...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Merinde rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism-and-gender-drama, non-fiction

I read this book at 14, and it was possibly the best thing to read for a vaguely angry but not entirely sure why girl who grew up in a strict religious environment with a serious problem with women being their own person. I still remember suddenly realizing just how screwed up my idea of my gender was, how out-dated the opinions of those around me even compared to a 70s book. I've not yet read it again, mostly because I expect it to let me down. Though it's been years, I still remember some very...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Mickey Schulz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I think this book has some really important observations and ideas. I also think that in some ways it is exceptionally dated in terms of the science it references, and attitudes towards transgendered individuals. Having spent most of my adult life involved with sex positivity, I find a lot of her sexual attitudes kind of quaint, even given that they were extremely progressive at the time.

The book is written with exceptionally academic language, which I can see being offputting to anyone who is...more

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Jul 13, 2009 Helynne rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Female Eunuch may seem a little dated by now, but back in the early 1970s when it first appeared, Australian feminist Germaine Greer really raised social consciousness with her ideas that women in various societies throughout history have been figuratively castrated (hence, the title), and forced to be much less in society than they should be. There are some really interesting facts and figures in Greer's study. I remember shortly after this book was published, Greer was a guest on William...more

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Nov 05, 2007 Lisbeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: womensstudies, femaleauthors

When I picked this up out of the Women's Studies section this past January, I was really adrift in life. Greer's book caught me and refocused me, entire paragraphs eliciting a 'fuck yes' aloud.

Germaine underlines that uncomfortable feeling of what it means to be female in modern society, something I'd never noticed until falling into a heterosexual relationship. What does it mean to be expected to play traditional gender roles, to cater or ignore expectations?

A milestone.

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Mar 27, 2013 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophic-reads

This was a hugely challenging, provoking and problematic read.
Rarely do I pick up a book so prepared to embrace a philosophy, yet I found myself continually pulling back--I actually succumbed to the urge to scribble notes in the margins, many of which expressed doubt, concern and rejection.

I think this is largely due to the fact that it is dated. It represents a key position (roughly between Simone de Beauvoir and Naomi Wolf) in the development of feminist theory but it seems--to me--that it is...more This was a hugely challenging, provoking and problematic read.
Rarely do I pick up a book so prepared to embrace a philosophy, yet I found myself continually pulling back--I actually succumbed to the urge to scribble notes in the margins, many of which expressed doubt, concern and rejection.

I think this is largely due to the fact that it is dated. It represents a key position (roughly between Simone de Beauvoir and Naomi Wolf) in the development of feminist theory but it seems--to me--that it is in no way the definitive statement that it (at times) claims to be.
Perhaps Greer says it best in her introduction, pointing out that, "this book represents only another contribution to a continuing dialogue between the wondering woman and the world." As dialogue, it is indeed a priceless contribution, and one filled with frankness, energy, and sass that is to be admired.

Nevertheless, looking back from the writings of the Third Wave, it is all too easy to identify undercurrents of homophobia, racism, sex-negativity, hetero-normative claims and unacknowledged class privilege. ("The Female Eunuch does not deal with poor women--for when I wrote it I did not know them--but with the women of the rich world, whose oppression is seen by poor women as freedom," is aptly pointed out in the introduction to this newer edition, but she could also include women of colour, transgendered people and sex workers in those who are excluded from her arguments.)

Another problematic area is the author/reader relationship, which is at times tinged with a sinister condescension that borders on disgust. Claims that women should not be expected to argue using male logic and scholarship because they are not educated to use those tools are counterbalanced by shockingly underhanded academic tricks, particularly in the fields of relying on pseudo-science and pop-psychology and of quoting out of context. In her own defense, she says, "of course I am taking advantage of the masters of psychology, bending and selecting their words like this...we cannot allow them to define what must be or change would be impossible." Allowing this, she still refuses to credit the majority of her perceived audience with the ability to understand her rhetoric. Furthermore, she goes on to criticize another female writer saying that, "she is so patently arguing from her convictions to her evidence, none of which has any source that she quotes, that the most sympathetic reader is alienated, unless, presumably, he has no way of knowing better." Hmmm.

Condescension, arrogance, and blatant privileged white-hetero blindness aside, I will still give this work three stars. Dialogue is ongoing, fluid and necessary to achieving the aims that are indeed brought to light with candor and flare. I say, read it, but don't accept it without a fight--something that Ms Greer would no doubt approve.
(less)

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Jul 29, 2011 Lena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Female Eunuch is an eye opening book, for sure. It feels a little dated in some parts and I’d love to see a revised version which includes data from 30 years later (I am aware that Greer wrote a ‘sequel’ but it is more concerned with more mature women instead of young women). Greer’s arguments struck deep in me and the stories she told or behaviours she described mirrored so many patterns of behaviour and thinking in my life and my family that it was rather uncomfortable to acknowledge just how...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Siria rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, feminism

It's a classic, which is why it should still be required reading for any feminist trying to educate themselves. But it's very, very much of its time, very much the work of a second waver with all the problematic attitudes towards sexuality, homosexuality and race that that implies. Worth reading as an historical record, but not something that I base my own thought on, really.

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Jan 09, 2011 C.D. Leavitt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gender-theory

I was fifteen when I picked up this book. I was a voracious reader at that age and I knew what a "eunuch" was, so was intrigued by the title alone. The book was first published before I was even born and so there were a lot of cultural touchstones that had shifted, not to mention the fact that I imagine I was quite a bit younger than the original target audience.

But even so, I'd credit this book with changing my life and opening my eyes. It came along at just the right time in my life and I thin...more

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May 09, 2013 Tiemu rated it 3 of 5 stars

VANGUARDIST LITERATURE FROM THE 1960's and 1970's tend to prove batty, antiquated, and quixotic with the march of time. Greer's seminal vaunting of second-wave feminism veritably suits the milieu. But unlike some of her peers she hoped the book would become antiquated as soon as possible, something it does quite well.

Pertinent points of ingrained sexism in developed Western societies are raised in the book. But the focus of Greer's jab is, somewhat misguidedly, at the 'feminine'. The book has ma...more VANGUARDIST LITERATURE FROM THE 1960's and 1970's tend to prove batty, antiquated, and quixotic with the march of time. Greer's seminal vaunting of second-wave feminism veritably suits the milieu. But unlike some of her peers she hoped the book would become antiquated as soon as possible, something it does quite well.

Pertinent points of ingrained sexism in developed Western societies are raised in the book. But the focus of Greer's jab is, somewhat misguidedly, at the 'feminine'. The book has many chapters, and this innocuous notion that Greer views with a vatinian dislike weaves its way from start to end.

Academics can at times get so open-minded that their brain falls out, when the simplicity of a verist simply won't do. So many characteristics of the academically-correct androgynous woman can be unwittingly found in the loutish, boarish behaviour of the lowest strata of society. Such women are loud, care little about their hygiene, appearance or bodily functions, are aggressive, and care little about raising their children. It is little wonder that second-wave feminism did not attract a wide gathering even at its apex and is surpassed now by the current third wave.

Which takes us to Greer's criticism of the first-wave feminists in the early chapters of this book. Greer vapulates those apparently uppity womenfolk whose verecund goals were detached from the real needs of the majority of women, by remaining manacled in their roles as supporting wife and mother. And of course, they weren't 'revolutionary' enough, that nauseating term of the era. Greer later correctly debunks the flawed feminist ideas of her more Marxist-leaning sorority. But some of Greer's own views are impractical and even harmful, which is why they never caught on.

How risible are some of Greer's ideas that never caught on? Communal living, where children are not raised by their mother as much as by whoever else is in the semi-rural neighbourhood. Psychiatrists would find many problems with children who had detached mothers who showed only partial interest in their children, especially the mothers Greer advises to simply abandon the family altogether ('children don't need to be raised as they grow up anyway'). These are the parenting methods of terrible segments of society, who knock-down the walls of their goverment-owned homes to create 'communal living', with absentee parents and children roaming the streets freely without control. Rather than a healthy childhood, these people almost invariably end up a scourge on society and to themselves.

Academics can seem to need to discover meanings in behaviour. Greer writes that men unwittingly hate women so much that they won't even want to see a clear pudendum in their pornography. Well the internet reveals that men who hate women indeed like to see (unshaved) pudenda, plus gaping other orifices as well. Why did Greer not think that censorship could have been the reason for the largely innocent images men once paid money for, and that those images were less degrading?

There are relevant parts of the book, such as how women earn less than men, particularly at a time when women performing identical work in the same role were paid less. Bored feminists could still state what women earn less than men on average and so workplace sexism persists in spite of equal pay for equal work, but how many women want to carry a 20 kg drill to bore through an underground mine? Of course a cleaner or office assistant will be paid less at a mine site than the male miner whose function is the raison detre for the mine's existence.

Greer today is reticent to comment on the plight of women in non-Western countries, preferring to remain critical of Western society because of the versuit reason that Westerners haven't achieved equality yet. It is like Edward Said whose attacks on Israel's treatment of Palestinians never allowed him see the greater oppression by the Palestinians towards themselves (like public lynchings). Greer even revealed on the ABC's Q&A that she supported legalised clitorectomy in Britain on the grounds that the benighted vaurients from Africa and Middle-East doing this to their UK-born daughters will do so regardless. Leftists are cleft when different spokes of the wheel are at polarities, like cultural relativism and universal female rights.

There are still parts of the world where even first-wave feminism has failed to take hold. It can make books like The Female Eunuch seem like a time capsule of limited utility.(less)

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Apr 12, 2009 abatage rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

When I started reading this book I was hoping that it would be an irrelevant, but interesting account of 70s feminism and that most of its messages could now be seen as history. Unfortunately, there's far too much about the concepts and obervations that Greer discusses in this book that are all too relevant to our current society.

While many of the statistics are outdated and even perhaps the intensity of the need for change, there is still a very strong message to be found within. I personally c...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's validating, this book, from the first sentence. Talk of women breaking through the glass ceiling only to settle. Fighting for equality only to go to college to STILL shop for husbands. Great book. Sad nothing's advanced since.

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Mar 01, 2013 Liam Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: half-read

My first impression of this book upon reading the summary was an out of date, bigoted account of the female plight of male "oppression". I found humour in the insinuation that the entity of masculinity see's a women not as an individual but as an object to be mentally undressed and desecrated and the presentation of women that causes this sexualisation is, of course a man's fault. Its probably evident I'm a male.
I was however pleasantly surprised by the clear and concise insight the "Body" chap...more

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Jan 06, 2009 Rhianna rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book on women, how society views women, and such. Of course the best quote out of this whole book that every female needs to know is "the body reasonably healthy and clean is the body beautiful."

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Jul 09, 2009 Deirdre rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultural-criticism

Greer can be brilliant, can be infuriating. She can shine and she can let herself down horribly. This is a book of its time and I read it when it was first published. Back then, it blasted the cobwebs off a totally patriarchal society but did it in a witty and winning way. This is Greer at her best.

It is sad that whilst this book is now somewhat dated, the battle it engaged with has still not been won. Today's young women in the main think feminism is passé and are complaisant about the superfic...more

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Aug 05, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone should read it, i doubt everyone will like it though

Brilliant. This book should be required reading for everyone, not just women.

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Mar 24, 2007 Xio rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booksfromyouth, femaleauthors, historysociologyetc, political

She's the badass radical feminist Paglia needs up her ass.

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Mar 14, 2008 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’ve roused after a 33-year sleep!

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Apr 15, 2011 Jenny rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, politics

It took me over a year to get through this book, and in the year intervening I have become way more disillusioned with conventional feminism, of which this is a fundamental text. So my attitude at the moment is rather dismissive to the white lady problems of Germaine Greer and the mid-20th-century feminism of which she was a pillar.

This book felt so alien to me, in style and substance. Stylistically, it's hard to follow -- Greer chains together one anecdote and unsubstantiated essentialist stat...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Naomi Nolet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourite-non-fiction, gender

Germaine Greer is a delicious read simply because she is not afraid to say anything- I went to see a documentary about Lillian Roxon (who Germaine Greer and oddly enough Deryn Hinch knew) and she came to the premier. At question time, she was invited up by the filmmakers and didn't hesitate to call Deryn Hinch a fucking wanker in front of everyone, it was hilarious (so you can imagine some of the controversial content in this book)- BUT this book is not pure exhibitionism. Another life changer.

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Mar 09, 2012 Ebenhicks rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the book that made me understand where I was within feminism, and how shit fucks both women AND men up. It is probably the most important non-fictional book I've ever read outside of analytical philosophy, and if one were to take the fun out of it, it would probably be a work of that school. This would be a loss to human culture. It doesn't hurt that Greer is assaultive and inarguable and entertaining to the senses throughout. Read this book or eat shit.

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Mar 02, 2012 Furqan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism, non-fiction, culture, modern-classics

This book is written for the sole purpose of criticizing everything, while rarely offering viable alternatives. It's a scholarly type of book, full of jargon that might be discouraging for some people. However, there is some excellent analysis of women's issues which are still relevant in 21st century, even though the book was written 40 years ago. Greer doesn't just blame everything on patriarchy, she is much more critical of the average women, lambasting their feminine virtues, exhorting them...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Maureen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Back in the day, this was a very influential book. Back when I flinched at the term "feminist," equating it with strident, angry women who hated men and burned bras. As I matured, I realized nothing was ever that simple in the equal rights movement for women, and now, in my sixties, I realize that I was a closet feminist all along, afraid to embrace the label. So, this book influenced me even when I thought it did not. It was valuable.

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Jun 05, 2012 V H rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing

When I picked this book up in Darwin I did so because I thought it had an interesting title and I thought it was some sort of fiction. I did recognise the name Germaine Greer, but I couldn't remember where I had it from. The book is a very feminist non-fiction book.

I struggled getting through this book. It was just so boring. The way it was written was boring and the subject was outdated. I'm sure it was a big hit and kind of helpful to the women liberation in the 70's, and parts of it was inter...more

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About Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian born writer, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century.

Greer's ideas have created controversy ever since her ground-breaking The Female Eunuch became an international best-seller in 1970, turning her overnight into a household name and bringing her both adulatio...more

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Books by Germaine Greer

The Madwoman's Underclothes: Essays and Occasional Writings

The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work

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Quotes from The Female Eunuch

“Maybe I couldn’t make it. Maybe I don’t have a pretty smile, good teeth, nice tits, long legs, a cheeky arse, a sexy voice. Maybe I don’t know how to handle men and increase my market value, so that the rewards due to the feminine will accrue to me. Then again, maybe I’m sick of the masquerade. I’m sick of pretending eternal youth. I’m sick of belying my own intelligence, my own will, my own sex. I’m sick of peering at the world through false eyelashes, so everything I see is mixed with a shadow of bought hairs; I’m sick of weighting my head with a dead mane, unable to move my neck freely, terrified of rain, of wind, of dancing too vigorously in case I sweat into my lacquered curls. I’m sick of the Powder Room. I’m sick of pretending that some fatuous male’s self-important pronouncements are the objects of my undivided attention, I’m sick of going to films and plays when someone else wants to, and sick of having no opinions of my own about either. I’m sick of being a transvestite. I refuse to be a female impersonator. I am a woman, not a castrate.” — 70 people liked it

“Security is the denial of life” — 21 people liked it

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