Germaine Greer

Forty years ago it seemed that women were about to take their rightful place in the world, in Parliament, in the church, in the judiciary, in the workplace, but when you open the newspaper you find that news is still made by mens in suits. The female most likely to be seen in the sports pages will be a horse. Women are disappearing too because flesh is not allowed. As soon as girls accept the size, role and shape of adult women, they begin to disappear.

With each stage of their lives, as they become successively wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, they become less visible. Virtually obliterated are the three-quarters of care home residents who are women. Germaine Greer attempts to explain this state of affairs and to suggest some strategies for change.