Poyner, Claire

If you’ve ever heard, or read, people saying: ‘Oh, women have equality now, there’s no need for feminism’, then this little book will give you some of the facts and figures you need to be able to say: ‘Well, actually, there’s still lots to do’.

This book probably won’t make a feminist of most people who don’t already consider themselves feminists – indeed, they’re unlikely to pick up a copy – but there’s plenty here to help those who are already interested, particularly anyone who…

Mark Rylance (left) and Patrick

An impressive number of people braved a forecast downpour on 15 May to commemorate Conscientious Objectors (CO) Day in Tavistock Square in central London.
The rain downgraded to a steady drizzle but maybe the news that Mark Rylance (sir Mark? We don’t do titles do we?) was going to be one of the speakers motivated people.

Mark is best known for portraying Thomas Cromwell in the BBC TV series Wolf Hall; younger readers may know him as the BFG.…

In 1972, the Staple Singers sang ‘Respect Yourself’, indicating that instead of (or as well as) complaining that ‘the president won’t stop air pollution’, we could, should, take personal responsibility.

It’s a song that always pops into my head whenever I read or hear the words ‘air pollution’. Of course, covering your mouth when you cough won’t lower the current high levels of…

Eight women, after a four-year struggle, have won an apology from the Metropolitan police, who finally conceded that undercover relationships were an abuse of power and violated women’s human rights. Seven of the women were present at a press conference on 20 November, and they presented their experiences and how the relationships have since affected their lives.

One of the women, Kate Wilson, did not accept any settlement with the police and is continuing her case. She will be…

The overall majority gained by the Conservatives took a lot of us by surprise. Many were expecting a minority Labour win, with some support from the Scottish National Party. Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats had the worst election night since their formation.

There’ve been many attempts to analyse Labour’s failure to win the election – were they too left or too right? Is he ‘Red Ed’ and a ‘class war zealot’ or middle-of-the-road ‘austerity-lite’? Was it the media that ‘won it’? It…

Fem11, the national conference of UK Feminista held on 12 November at Friends House, London gathered over 1000 feminists.

Keynote speaker Sandy Toksvig bemoaned the lack of suitable role models in children’s literature – “If Rapunzel had hair long enough for a prince to climb up, couldn’t she have fashioned a rope out of her hair to escape?”

Also criticised: the way female role models were re-fashioned to make them more “respectable”. Did you know that Florence Nightingale was…

UK Feminsta was founded in 2010 and Fem11, the national conference held on 12 November at Friends House, London was a gathering of over 1000 feminists. Mostly women with a smattering of men, and for the most part, women who don’t appear to meet the stereotype which may be responsible for some, particularly younger women, to proclaim: “I’m not a feminist”.

The keynote speaker was a very popular Sandy Toksvig who bemoaned the lack of suitable role model in children’s literature – “If…