Feminism

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.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Dr Helena Cronin No other episodes
  Co-director of the Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London School of Economics
• Dr Germaine Greer 2 episodes
  Professor of English and Comparative Studies, Warwick University

Related episodes

• Christine de Pizan
  
  8 Jun, 2017 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Human Nature
  
  7 Nov, 2002 150 Psychology
• Women and Enlightenment Science
  
  4 Nov, 2010 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Progress
  
  18 Nov, 1999 100 Philosophy
• Work in the 20th Century
  
  26 Nov, 1998 330 Economics
• Mary Astell
  
  5 Nov, 2020 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Genetic Engineering
  
  14 Jan, 1999 570 Biology
• Human Evolution
  
  16 Feb, 2006 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• Mary Wollstonecraft
  
  31 Dec, 2009 320 Political science
• Genetic Determinism
  
  23 Sep, 1999 570 Biology
• Masculinity in Literature
  
  20 Jan, 2000 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Simone de Beauvoir
  
  22 Oct, 2015 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Hegel’s Philosophy of History
  
  26 May, 2022 900 History
• The Individual
  
  21 Oct, 1999 100 Philosophy
• The Great Disruption
  
  17 Jun, 1999 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Suffragism
  
  16 Apr, 2009 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Harriet Martineau
  
  8 Dec, 2016 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Science in the 20th century
  
  5 Nov, 1998 500 Science
• Social Darwinism
  
  20 Feb, 2014 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• A Room of One’s Own
  
  30 Mar, 2023 820 English and Old English literatures

---

Programme ID: p00545b0

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545b0

Auto-category: 305.42 (Women’s studies)