Anne Summers AO (born 12 March 1945) is an Australian writer and columnist, best known as a leading feminist,[1] editor and publisher.

Her contributions are also noted in The Australian Media Hall of Fame biographical entry Born Ann Fairhurst Cooper in Deniliquin, New South Wales in 1945, the oldest of the six children of AHF and EF Cooper,[2] Summers grew up in a strict Catholic household in Adelaide, South Australia, and was educated at a Catholic school in Adelaide.

After becoming pregnant during a brief relationship in 1965, and refused a referral for a termination by her Adelaide doctor, she arranged an expensive abortion in Melbourne but it was incomplete.

On 24 April 1967[5] she married a fellow student, John Summers, and the couple moved to a remote Aboriginal reserve where he worked as a teacher.

[4][10][11] Summers used her postgraduate scholarship to write the book Damned Whores and God's Police which looked at the history of women in Australia.