Jean Curthoys (born 1947) is an Australian feminist philosopher. She was born in

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

, the daughter of Geoffrey and Barbara Curthoys, leading members of the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

. Her sister

Ann Curthoys Ann Curthoys, (born 5 September 1945) is an Australian historian and academic. Early life and education Curthoys was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 5 September 1945, and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney. In 1 ...

is an academic historian. After studying science and philosophy at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, she helped teach the first feminist philosophy course in Sydney in 1973. Her 1997 book, ''Feminist Amnesia'', accuses later academic

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or Philosophy, philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's Gender role, social roles, experiences, intere ...

of abandoning the liberation theory of the 1960s for an intellectually and morally sterile careerism. She is a contributor to ''Goodbye to All That? On the Failure of Neo-liberalism and the Urgency of Change'', ed. D. McKnight and R. Manne (Black Inc, 2010). She saw through the press and wrote an introduction to Vic Dudman's work on the priority of grammar over logic, ''Victor Dudman's Grammar and Semantics'' (

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

, 2012). She was married to philosopher Alan Olding and later to photographer and historian

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

.John Williams 1933-2016
''Sydney Morning Herald'' 19 Aug 2016

References

External links

Australian Screen brief video clip on her educational expectations

National Film and Sound Archive recollection of seeing feminist speaker abused
* J. Franklin, (2003), ''Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia'', Macleay Press
ch. 14
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curthoys, Jean 1947 births University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of Sydney People from Newcastle, New South Wales Australian women philosophers 20th-century Australian philosophers 21st-century Australian philosophers Scholars of feminist philosophy Living people