Where We Are Now: the Role and Future of Feminist Research – March 2014

Where We Are Now: the Role and Future of Feminist Research – March 2014

“Scholarly research, like many things, comes inbuilt with certain assumptions, biases and omissions. Take history and historical research. Yawning over centuries and straddling continents, so often the history recorded, studied and researched is a history of the accomplishments, milestones and experiences of men. It is the history of royal bloodlines, religions, battlefields, explorers and scientists. […]


Kate Millett’s ‘Sexual Politics’: 40 years on

Kate Millett’s ‘Sexual Politics’: 40 years on

Kate Millett’s book Sexual Politics was pivotal for the developing second wave feminist movement. It was regarded as very important both by feminists at the time and by the media. Time magazine labelled Millett as the Mao Tse-Tung of women’s liberation, but the book is not as well known today as might be expected for […]


Where have all the radicals gone? When feminism gets moderate – April 2011

Where have all the radicals gone? When feminism gets moderate – April 2011

In a world where feminism as a whole is often touted as a bad word, radical feminism in particular is marginalized, not only by the mainstream media, but often within third-wave feminist discourse. Are we afraid to be ‘too’ radical at the risk of alienating the masses? Or is radical feminism simply misunderstood? This radio […]


Prostitution, trafficking and feminism: An update on the debate

Prostitution, trafficking and feminism: An update on the debate

Within the academy the ‘sex work’ position, i.e. that prostitution should be understood as legitimate work, and an expression of women’s choice and agency, has become the dominant perspective. Most feminist scholars now take this point of view or show sympathy towards it. The critical approach to prostitution that was almost universal amongst feminists from […]


Sheila Jeffreys on Kate Millet – March 2009

Sheila Jeffreys on Kate Millet – March 2009

Contributing to the Key Thinkers seminar series at the University of Melbourne, radical feminist scholar Sheila Jeffreys talks about the influence of Kate Millett on feminism. Watch the video on YouTube here.


Bisexual Politics: a superior form of feminism?

Bisexual Politics: a superior form of feminism?

In this article, I shall examine the ideas and practices of the bisexual movement that has developed in the Western world in the last decade. I shall offer a lesbian feminist critique. Bisexual theorists and activists have formulated critiques of lesbian feminism at their conferences and in anthologies of their writings. Lesbian feminists have been […]


Why has the Big O seduced so many feminists? May 1996

Why has the Big O seduced so many feminists? May 1996

“The November/December 1995 issue of Ms., cover-lined HOT UNSCRIPTED SEX, showed a close-up of an African American woman licking her lipsticked lips. Despite all the feminist work that has been done in the last quarter-century to critique and challenge the male-supremacist construction of sex, none of the four articles inside made connections to the whole […]


Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism – 1982

Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism – 1982

Talk given by Sheila Jeffreys in 1982 on sexual liberals and the attack on feminism. Listen to the audio from the National Library of Australia here.