Dale Spender
Encyclopedia
Dale Spender is an Australia
n feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant.
, a niece of the crime writer Jean Spender (1901–70). The eldest of three, she has a younger sister Lynne, and a much younger brother Graeme. She attended the Burwood Girls High School
, in Sydney. In her youthful days she was a Miss Kodak girl. In the later half of the 1960s she also taught English Literature at Dapto High School. She started lecturing at James Cook University
in 1974, before going to live for a while in London
and publishing the book Man Made Language in 1980.
She is the author of a witty literary spoof, The Diary of Elizabeth Pepys, 1991 Grafton Books, London, a feminist critique of women's lives in 17th Century London, purportedly written by Elisabeth, the wife of Samuel Pepys.
Today Spender is particularly concerned with intellectual property and the effects of new technologies: in her terms, the prospects for "new wealth" and "new learning". For nine years she was a director of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) in Australia and for two years (2002–2004) she was the chair. She is also involved with the Second Chance Programme, which tackles homelessness among women in Australia.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant.
Early life
Spender was born in Newcastle, New South WalesNewcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
, a niece of the crime writer Jean Spender (1901–70). The eldest of three, she has a younger sister Lynne, and a much younger brother Graeme. She attended the Burwood Girls High School
Burwood Girls High School
Burwood Girls' High School is a public, comprehensive, secondary, day school for girls, located in Croydon, an inner western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, in Sydney. In her youthful days she was a Miss Kodak girl. In the later half of the 1960s she also taught English Literature at Dapto High School. She started lecturing at James Cook University
James Cook University
James Cook University is a public university based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The university has two Australian campuses, located in Townsville and Cairns respectively, and an international campus in Singapore. JCU is the second oldest university in Queensland—proclaimed in 1970—and the...
in 1974, before going to live for a while in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and publishing the book Man Made Language in 1980.
Work
She is co-originator of the database WIKED (Women's International Knowledge Encyclopedia and Data) and founding editor of the Athene Series and Pandora Press, commissioning editor of the Penguin Australian Women's Library, and associate editor of the Great Women Series (United Kingdom).She is the author of a witty literary spoof, The Diary of Elizabeth Pepys, 1991 Grafton Books, London, a feminist critique of women's lives in 17th Century London, purportedly written by Elisabeth, the wife of Samuel Pepys.
Today Spender is particularly concerned with intellectual property and the effects of new technologies: in her terms, the prospects for "new wealth" and "new learning". For nine years she was a director of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) in Australia and for two years (2002–2004) she was the chair. She is also involved with the Second Chance Programme, which tackles homelessness among women in Australia.
Personal life
She has been in a relationship with Ted Brown for over three decades. They have no children. She consistently dresses in purple clothes, a choice she initially made for its symbolic reference to the suffragettes. She currently resides in Brisbane, Australia.Publications
- Man Made Language (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980)
- Invisible Women: The Schooling Scandal (1982)
- There's Always Been a Women's Movement in the Twentieth Century (1983)
- Time and Tide Wait for No Man (ed., 1984)
- For the Record: The Making and Meaning of Feminist Knowledge (Women’s Press, 1985)
- Mothers of the Novel: 100 good women writers before Jane Austen (1986).
- Scribbling Sisters (1987)
- Treats pioneers of the novel like Lady Mary Wroath, Anne Weamys, Katherine PhilipsKatherine PhilipsKatherine Philips was an Anglo-Welsh poet.-Biography:Katherine Philips was the first Englishwoman to enjoy widespread public acclaim as a poet during her lifetime. Born in London, she was daughter of John Fowler, a Presbyterian, and a merchant of Bucklersbury, London. Philips is said to have read...
, Anne Clifford, Lucy HutchinsonLucy HutchinsonMrs. Lucy Hutchinson was an English biographer as well as the first translator into English of the complete text of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura during the years of the interregnum .-Biography:...
, Anne Fanshawe, Margaret CavendishMargaret CavendishMargaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was an English aristocrat, a prolific writer, and a scientist. Born Margaret Lucas, she was the youngest sister of prominent royalists Sir John Lucas and Sir Charles Lucas...
, Aphra BehnAphra BehnAphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
, Delarivière Manley, Eliza HaywoodEliza HaywoodEliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...
, as well as the achievements of Sarah FieldingSarah FieldingSarah Fielding was a British author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She was the author of The Governess, or The Little Female Academy , which was the first novel in English written especially for children , and had earlier achieved success with her novel The Adventures of David Simple...
, Charlotte LennoxCharlotte LennoxCharlotte Lennox was an English author and poet. She is most famous now as the author of The Female Quixote and for her association with Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, and Samuel Richardson, but she had a long career and wrote poetry, prose, and drama.-Life:Charlotte Lennox was born in Gibraltar...
, Elizabeth InchbaldElizabeth InchbaldElizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...
, Charlotte Turner SmithCharlotte Turner SmithCharlotte Turner Smith was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility....
, Ann RadcliffeAnn RadcliffeAnne Radcliffe was an English author, and considered the pioneer of the gothic novel . Her style is romantic in its vivid descriptions of landscapes, and long travel scenes, yet the Gothic element is obvious through her use of the supernatural...
, Mary WollstonecraftMary WollstonecraftMary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, Mary HaysMary HaysMary Hays was an English novelist and feminist.- Early years :Mary Hays was born in Southwark, London on Oct. 13, 1759. Almost nothing is known of her first 17 years. In 1779 she fell in love with John Eccles who lived on Gainsford Street, where she also lived. Their parents opposed the match but...
, Frances Burney, Maria EdgeworthMaria EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe...
, Lady MorganLady MorganSydney, Lady Morgan , was an Irish novelist, best known as the author of The Wild Irish Girl.-Early life:...
, Amelia OpieAmelia OpieAmelia Opie, née Alderson , was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic Period of the early 19th century, through 1828.-Life and work:...
, and Mary BruntonMary BruntonMary Brunton was a Scottish novelist.-Life:Mary was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Balfour of Elwick, a British Army officer and Frances Ligonier, daughter of Colonel Francis Ligonier and sister of the second earl of Ligonier. She was born on 1 November 1778 on Burray in the Orkney Islands...
. She also provides a list of no fewer than 106 women novelists before Jane Austen.
- Treats pioneers of the novel like Lady Mary Wroath, Anne Weamys, Katherine Philips
- Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers (Penguin Books, 1988)
- The Writing or the Sex?, Or, Why You Don't Have to Read Women's Writing to Know It's No Good (1989)
- Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace (Spinifex, 1995)
- Women of ideas and what men have done to them: From Aphra Behn to Adrienne Rich (1992)
- Living by the Pen: Early British Women Writers