Feminism

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 1999

⏱️ 28 minutes

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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 Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello today I'm joined by the academic and feminist writer Germain Greer and the
0:16.7	Darwinian philosopher Helena Cronin to discuss the rise of feminism and the subsequent empowerment
0:22.1	of women in the 20th century.
0:24.4	Are the biological differences between men and women insuperable?
0:27.8	Is the feminist movement, therefore, set on a course it's inevitably bound to lose.
0:32.2	Dr. Helena Cronin is co-director of the Center for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social
0:36.2	Sciences at the London School of Economics.
0:38.6	She is a philosopher who's concentrated on Darwinian theory.
0:41.4	Her books include The Ant and the Peacock, Altorism and Sexual
0:45.0	Selection from Darwin to today, which won a New York Times Prize. Dr. Germain Greer is currently
0:50.5	professor of English and comparative studies at Warwick University.
0:54.2	Her book, The Female Eunuch, published almost 30 years ago, is credited with changing the lives
0:58.5	of a generation of women, and it was an immediate bestseller worldwide.
1:02.4	In 1984, she published Sex and Destiny,
1:04.9	The Politics of Human Fertility. She's published other books and in March what's billed as a
1:09.4	sequel to the female eunuch to be entitled a whole woman will be published here.
1:14.0	Helena Cronin, you have written,
1:16.0	Man are by nature more competitive, ambitious, status conscious,
1:22.0	dedicated, single-minded, and persevering than women.
1:26.0	You say that this is a 2 million-year-old fact,
	...

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