Dale Spender pictured at home on August 10, 1988. Photo: Getty Images
Australian author and academic Dale Spender’s feminist activism found an audience far beyond her native shores. The writer, researcher and teacher wrote more than 30 books, the best-known being 1980’s Man Made Language, a critique of gendered language which remains influential. Spender was also a respected editor, having steered Pandora Press and Athene and also compiled The Penguin Anthology of Australian Women’s Writing. Clad in trademark purple clothing, a nod to the early suffragists, Spender was a regular public speaker and commentator in the media. Other notable titles by Spender included Mothers of the Novel (an examination of early women’s writing) and The Diary of Elizabeth Pepys, purportedly a work by the diarist Samuel’s wife. In 1996 Spender was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. She died on November 21, aged 80. — Agencies
