Dr Anne Summers AO

Episode 78 Dr Anne Summers AO

Dr Anne Summers AO is a pioneering Australian feminist, a best-selling author and journalist with a long career in politics, the media, business and the non-government sector in Australia, Europe, and the United States. 

 It would not be a stretch to say her first book, published in 1975,Damned Whores and God's Police, changed the way Australia viewed women. 

 Her career is almost the ultimate example of taking opportunities as they present themselves, even if they’re outside your comfort zone. Consider a few things she undertook with little or no previous experience....moving to Canberra to become bureau chief for the Australian Financial Review, working in politics as an adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and later Prime Minister Paul Keating. Moving to New York to become editor in chief of the iconic feminist magazine Ms. And, when a young Warwick Fairfax decided the magazine businesses of his media empire should be sold, Anne with her business partner, undertook for only the second time in U.S. corporate history, an all-female management buyout of the magazine. And then there’s the first ever post prime ministerial interview with Julia Gillard - at a sold out Opera House in Sydney if you don’t mind. The rock star reception for both Anne and Julia on the night was not only unforeseen but unprecedented for a political interview. 

 And there’s more to come in her career. 

 Indefatigable, unrelenting, dogged, outspoken, fearless and driven by injustice (it seems to me anyway)...with a wicked sense of humour. It was a fabulous opportunity for me to have this conversation with Anne Summers. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. 

Her books, Damned Whores and God’s Police and her memoir, Unfettered and Alive are available at Booktopia.com.au 

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