Journalist, Editor, Author and Political Activist
Dr Anne Summers is one of Australia's most accomplished women, a best-selling author, journalist, political activist and thought leader with a long career in politics, the media, business and the non government sector in Australia, Europe and the United States.
She is author of several books, including the classic Damned Whores and God's Police, first published in 1975; Ducks on the Pond, her autobiography in 1999; The End of Equality, (2003); On Luck (2008); and The Lost Mother (2009). Her most recent book The Misogyny Factor was published in June 2013. She writes on politics and social issues regularly for a number of Australian newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald. She is the editor and publisher of the digital magazine Anne Summers Reports and she hosts Anne Summers Conversations, public events where she engages in discussion with well-known people. Her first such conversation was with former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in late 2013.
In 1983 she joined the Hawke government's Prime Minister's Department running the Office for the Status of Women and helped develop policies that put into practice all the things she had fought for at an activist level.
In 1989 she was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her services to journalism and to women. She became an advisor on women's issues to Prime Minister Paul Keating prior to the 1993 Federal election and was then appointed editor of the Good Weekend magazine in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Dr Summers also took on the role of Chair of the Board of Greenpeace International from 2000-2006 and was Deputy President of Sydney's Powerhouse Museum from 1999-2008.
