Outspoken novelist Martin Amis waded into the battle of the sexes by claiming it will take women a century to become level with men.
Speaking at the launch of his new novel The Pregnant Widow in Manchester last night, he spoke of women going on a 'Napoleonic rampage' since the 1970s to achieve parity with men.
But he argued their efforts to achieve equality had actually been hampered by women trying to accrue more power.
He said: “Women should have got something really fixed before they did something else but they wanted to accrue more power.
“Men and women should have agreed to do 50:50 in the home and I believe a great deal would have followed from that but they didn't – the women went Napoleonic.
“It's going to take a century to get women level with men because the weight of the past is so great.”
The best-selling writer, who is a professor at the University of Manchester, went on to discuss his highly-anticipated novel in front of hundreds of people – many left shocked by his views on the male and female divide.
His new novel is being hailed by critics as a deeply autobiographical work, in which the author is at his 'fearless best' returning to the 1970s and the sexual revolution of his youth.
Amis, 60, read extracts from his 12th novel before he discussed it on stage and took questions from the audience at the university's Martin Harris Centre, Bridgeford Street.
During the public event, he also spoke movingly of the death of his alcoholic sister Sally – who died at the age of 46 in 2000 - revealing she had influenced his new novel.
He also told of the impact of her loss, saying he had suffered a 'sort of breakdown' following her death.
Amis said: “My sister threw herself into the sexual revolution and wasn't fully equipped to get through it.”
The plot of his new novel centres around three girls on a summer holiday at an Italian castle.
With them is Keith Nearing, a nervous but bright 21-year-old literature graduate, who is about to launch his literary career and has an unusual obsession with vital statistics.
He was joined on stage by Lisa Allardice, the editor of the Guardian Review, who described his latest book as 'fun'.
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Vote for David, tory land (09/02/2010 at 11:38)
Laura Norder, Didsbury (09/02/2010 at 11:48)
PR puff'n'stuff.
Tezza, Tyldesley (09/02/2010 at 11:49)
Rubbish, a woman can never be equal to a men
Always best to have both sides of the argument
tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (09/02/2010 at 11:58)
Laura Norder, Didsbury (09/02/2010 at 12:06)
In the interests of equality, don't you mean 'person'-malestrom(sic)?
(I know it's maelstrom.)
Mr Manchester (09/02/2010 at 12:50)
He gives an impression that he's intimidated by women's progress, which I'm sure isn't the case but designed to win press space. The 'weight of the past' were necessary actions; more so prior to the 1970s. He knows this, lecturing in the city from which the suffragettes emerged.
tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (09/02/2010 at 13:01)
JTC Formerley JimC (09/02/2010 at 13:16)
I do'nt think so.
He wants to live in my house and see who the boss is. It certainly is'nt me.
Scott the Techie, Lees (09/02/2010 at 14:36)
Esso Blue. Carlitos is officially a GOD , Blues Town (09/02/2010 at 15:56)
Karl Smith (09/02/2010 at 21:59)
Early modern England was a time of prosperity for women— those paragons!—who educated the young so thoroughly. Being under the aegis of these types of women, however privileged, seems to have been forgotten by modernists and feminists alike, at least partially. A small excursus…
So the gap is closing—socially, politically, psycho-sexually. And will be realized in 100 years, according to MA. This is mere persiflage, isn’t it? Amis’s opinions as a thinker are insincerely skewered by the tuning-fork of media speculation.
And did anyone recall Amis’s defense of a certain celebrity called Jordan? It’s easy to attack certain artists, as with Amis, or popular-culture icons such as Katie Price. It is the media which is impregnable, hunkered behind its concretized bunker, teeming with its sweating scriveners, its round-the clock-artists.
Anyway…if we have very little positive criticism for one of our greatest living writers, maybe the issue of his apparently anti- feminist attitudes should be left well alone.
Karl Smith (09/02/2010 at 22:05)
And did anyone recall Amis’s defense of a certain celebrity called Jordan? It’s easy to attack certain artists, as with Amis, or popular-culture icons such as Katie Price. It is the media which is impregnable, hunkered behind its concretized bunker, teeming with its sweating scriveners, its round-the clock-artists.
Scott the Techie, Lees (10/02/2010 at 00:11)
Tom Lardner (10/02/2010 at 15:21)
I expected more. But I was left with the feeling that he is below his game.