In 1975, aged just 29, she wrote a bestselling book that changed Australia. Since then, she's courted controversy and acclaim, but Anne Summers has never given up the fight for gender equality.

This conversation was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Speakers

Dr Anne SummersAuthor, Damned Whores and God's Police, Ducks on the Pond: An Autobiography 1945-1976, The Misogyny Factor, and many moreProfessor of domestic and family violence, University of Technology SydneyJournalist, editor, political advisor, advocate

Dr Alecia Simmonds (host)Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology SydneyAuthor, Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law, and Wild Man: The True Story of a Police Killing, Mental Illness and the Law

Further information:

Tenacity and two squat houses — how an Australian movement was born for women leaving violenceBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, Monday 6 May 2024

Baby boycott — the fertility crisis and the big decisionBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, Thursday 26 June 2025