GREER, GERMAINE

born Jan. 29, 1939, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Australian-born English writer and feminist who championed the sexual freedom of women. Greer was educated at the universities of Melbourne and Sydney before taking a doctorate in 1967 in literature at the University of Cambridge. She acted on television, wrote for journals, and lectured at the University of Warwick until her influential first book, The Female Eunuch (1970), was published. It postulates that passivity in women's sexuality is a characteristic associated with a castrate, hence the title, and is a role foisted on them by history and by women themselves. Greer moved to Italy and continued to lecture. Her other books include The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work (1979); Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility (1984); and The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause (1991).