Summers Anne

Australian feminine activist, one of the first people to lead a womens liberation group in her hometown of Adelaide, and to establish a womens refuge in Sydney. The author of a classic historical study of Australian women, "Damned Whores and Gods Police: The Colonization of Women in Australia," 1975, she also wrote an autobiography called "Ducks on the Pond." Her media career includes spells as a political correspondent and editor. This led her to New York from 1986 to 1992, where she became editor-in-chief of "Ms." magazine, and eventually a co-owner of Ms. and the short lived younger sister publication, "Sassy," after a then pioneering management buyout. Sassy came under assault from a Moral Majority campaign, and Summers later severed her connections with the magazines to return to Australia. She became a political adviser to the last Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, until 1993. During this time she headed the Office of the Status of Women. Then she again became an editor, this time of the "Good Weekend" magazine which appeared in the largest newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne. The University of New South Wales awarded Summers an Honorary Doctorate in April for her contribution to journalism and the advancement of women. Dr. Summers said that receiving a doctorate for her lifetime achievements led her to reflect on the successes of the past century and the endless possibilities for the next generation. Little known for her green credentials, and just a year after she was appointed to its board, Dr. Anne Summers in late September 2000 was appointed to take over the chair of Greenpeace International, at a crucial time for the organization. From December 2000, she will head Greenpeace -- the worlds pre-eminent green activist organization -- as it recruits its most crucial position -- international executive director, shifts its focus towards Asia, and reportedly faces a membership and funding crisis. On her appointment she stated, "I look forward to working with all parts of the organization and to continue Greenpeaces unparalleled record of making the planet safe for all living things." Claiming around 2.5 million members, Greenpeace has a presence in 41 countries and a 1999 income of $US 110 million. The seven- person-board that Summers will chair broadly represents global regions for Greenpeace and is seen as a supervisory body. Summers will be responsible for such tasks as identifying key strategic issues, and supervising the Dutch headquartered organizations governance. Raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Anne Cooper was the oldest child and only girl in a Catholic family. She had five younger brothers. Her mother was a busy homemaker, her father an aviation instructor and alcoholic. As the nurse at her birth remarked, Summers was born according to a once-in-a-century [dd/mm/yy] numerical sequence -- 12.3.45 -- (as it is written in Australia) and she has followed "signs" all her life, although she doesnt believe in an afterlife. When she was about six weeks old "a large red splotch" appeared on her face. Eventually she would have surgery to remove it. At 17 she left convent school and her restrictive home life in Adelaide, moving from a bank to a bookshop assistants job in Melbourne. She began a sexual relationship with a Catholic man; his guilt about their trysts leading her to question her religious faith. In early 1964, she returned to Adelaide. After sex with another man on a beach, she headed to Sydney in 1965, see Read less