Author and women's activist.
Born in Ireland, she attended Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School, and won a scholarship to University Women’s College, graduating from Melbourne University with both a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree. She was later awarded a Ph.D. In 2005, she was in 2005 awarded the degree of LLD honoris causa at Monash University.
She was a co-founder of Women's Electoral Lobby, President of the Victorian Abortion Law Repeal Association, and the author of four books: Women, Sex and Pornography (1980), Apprenticeship in Liberty, (1991), Benzo Junkie: More than a case history (1993) and Backlash? Balderdash! Where Feminism is Going Right (1994).
She later worked at both RMIT in Melbourne and Monash University’s Gippsland campus, where she was, respectively, a lecturer in English and an education designer.
