The Female Eunuch

A woman’s soul is shaped beginning at infancy as she is indoctrinated into fulfilling her ascribed gender role, which leads to denial of self-determinism. Greer argues that denial of self-determinism defines a woman’s existence. Puberty acts as a critical moment in indoctrination, as this is the time when girls must accept their fate and become “eunuch” or reject it and their place in society.

This section also discusses psychoanalysis. Because psychoanalytic ideologies assess women through their relationships to existing social norms (rather than as individuals), research and treatment of women conducted through this lens is inadequate. This section concludes with a discussion of the default undervaluation of work performed by women, regardless of whether it is a job historically associated with women or her professional work outside the home. This disparity in the value of work performed by women illustrates another mode of control employed by patriarchal, capitalist society.

The stereotype of a woman dictates who she should be and how she should act, rendering her an object because she is acted upon rather than an actor in her own life. The stereotype of womanhood, which Greer refers to also as “the Eternal Feminine” and “the Sexual Object” (67), is the unilateral role a woman should fulfill according to traditional expectations.