Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important events of the 20th century - the rise of Feminism and the subsequent empowerment of women. What have been the most important and lasting changes for women in the last 100 years and what is there still left to achieve? Are the biological differences between men and women insuperable? Is the feminist movement therefore set on a course it is inevitably bound to lose? Is the ideology of feminism in other words, working against our natural inclinations?If a man were to say “men are by nature more competitive, ambitious, status-conscious, dedicated, single-minded and persevering than women” then you could be forgiven for calling him anti-diluvian, blinkered and worse. But this is the express view of Dr Helena Cronin from the London School of Economics - a philosopher who has concentrated on Darwinian theory which she claims has never seriously been applied to humans. Joining her is Dr Germaine Greer whose book The Female Eunuch is credited with changing the lives of a generation of women. With Dr Helena Cronin, Co-director of the Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London School of Economics; Dr Germaine Greer, Professor of English and Comparative Studies, Warwick University.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the in-artime podcast. For more details about in-artime and for our terms of use |
| 0:05.4 | Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program |
| 0:12.4 | Hello today. I'm joined by the academic and feminist writer German Greer and the Darwinian philosopher Helena Kronin |
| 0:18.6 | To discuss the rise of feminism and the subsequent empowerment of women in the 20th century |
| 0:23.7 | Are the biological differences between men and women insuperable? |
| 0:27.3 | Is the feminist movement, therefore, set on the course. It's inevitably bound to lose |
| 0:31.7 | Dr. Helena Kronin is co-director of the Center for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences at the London School of Economics |
| 0:38.2 | She's a philosopher who's concentrated on Darwinian theory her books include the Ant and the Peacock |
| 0:44.0 | altruism and sexual selection from Darwin to today which were in a New York Times prize |
| 0:49.0 | Dr. Juman Greer is currently professor of English and comparative studies at Warwick University |
| 0:53.8 | Her book The Female Unic published almost 30 years ago is credited with changing the lives of a generation of women |
| 0:59.7 | And it was an immediate bestseller worldwide in 1984. She published sex and destiny the politics of human fertility |
| 1:06.4 | She's published other books and in March what's built as a sequel to the female Unic to be entitled the whole woman |
| 1:12.2 | Will be published here. Helena Kronin, you've written man-a-by-nature |
| 1:18.2 | More competitive ambitious status conscious dedicated single-minded and persevering than women |
| 1:25.8 | You say that this is a two-million-year-old fact and we should accept it. Can you develop that please? |
| 1:31.8 | Yes, of course they are there's quite a large psychological difference between men and women |
| 1:37.3 | Natural selection didn't just shape our bodies differently it shaped our minds differently as well |
| 1:42.2 | Think of it this way |
| 1:43.9 | Give a man 50 wives and he can have children galore give a woman 50 husbands. No use whatsoever |
| 1:51.2 | Overreolutionary time natural selection has favored those men who have competed like mad to get mates |
| 1:58.0 | Overreolutionary time natural selection has favored the women who have been judicious about which mates they've taken |
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