It’s fifty years since it was published, but the themes and issues it explores are maybe more relevant now than ever. 

Damned Whores and Gods Police was a totemic book, that investigated the ways in which Australia had stereotyped women. 

They were either virtuous mothers, or they were bad girls – scorned and rejected for not conforming to what society expected of them. 

It was, and remains, a seminal text, an interrogation of Australian society. 

GUEST: Dr Anne Summers Author, editor, journalist and researcher