Astonishing moment feminist author Clementine Ford leaves Project hosts stunned by claiming marriage is ‘built on the oppression of women’

Controversial feminist figure Clementine Ford has described marriage as ‘built on the oppression of women’ and compared women to slaves in a new book.

The bestselling author appeared on The Project to outline an alternative view of marriage in her latest book I Don’t, describing how she wants women to question what they’ve been told about it.

“My biggest problem with marriage is that I think it is a fundamentally flawed institution built on the oppression of women,” she said on the program.

‘…But also that it is now presented to people as something that it never was, something that we need to have happiness and love.

“Love marriage has only been around for about 200 years, so the idea that marriage is somehow essential and will elevate our lives to something better is historically wrong and I think we would be much better as human beings who focus on how to make ourselves happy. ‘

Feminist author Clementine Ford (pictured) has described marriage as ‘built on the oppression of women’ in an interview on Ten’s The Project

She went on to say that marriage was largely “great for men,” while women were left with a great burden within the relationship.

‘One of the main complaints that many women have about their husbands is that they don’t really feel like their husband sees them. “All they are is some sort of glorified all-in-one device for them,” she said.

Ms Ford said she is “not at all against people falling in love and forming families”, but urged people to consider whether they needed to get married to have a meaningful relationship.

“If you have essentially the same legal rights in a de facto relationship as you do in a marriage, what does marriage and the piece of government paper give you that a relationship doesn’t?” she asked.

Host Waleed Aly (pictured) pointed out to Ms. Ford that the dynamics of actual relationships are often similar to those of marriages, and asked her whether marriage might not be the problem after all.

Host Waleed Aly then pointed out to Ms. Ford that the dynamics of actual relationships are often similar to those of marriages, and asked her if maybe marriage isn’t the problem after all.

“It’s a good question, Waleed, maybe the plan is to go for actual relationships next,” she said.

“My goal is to really help women see something bigger and better for themselves than just being someone’s partner or wife.”