The physiological and anatomical traits that differentiate males and females. These traits include reproductive organs, secondary sexual characteristics (e.g. facial hair, breasts), hormonal functions, and chromosomal makeup.

An economic system based on the principle of privatizing the means of production and profits gained through privatized labor. In this book, capitalism refers to the market-style economic structures developed during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, particularly as they relate to other sociopolitical structures that developed with capitalism. Greer presents capitalism as a system of oppression that limits women, in part by driving sociocultural developments such as marriage and consumerism.

Traditionally refers to the removal of the testicles, but in The Female Eunuch, Greer uses the term to refer to the metaphorical process of repressing female sexuality to the point that women cannot access it. It represents a psychological concept with physical symbolism to subvert traditional concepts of castration.