Arcadia England

Last Spring, we invited Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, to attend our Talk of the Town series. Her lecture was so successful and had such a positive response from our students that we invited her back with us this Fall.

Not surprisingly, her lecture last week received quite a turn-out once again. It was an incredible evening, and the topic at hand was clearly one that spoke to our students in attendance.

EVERYDAY SEXISM

The Everyday Sexism Project was created in 2012 with the purpose ‘to catalogue instances of sexism experienced by women on a day to day basis.’ By April 2015, the project had shared 100,000 stories and was a catalyst for a renewed interest in gender inequality in the UK.

In 2013, Laura was named Cosmopolitan magazine’s ‘Ultimate New Feminist’ and received the ‘British Empire Medal’ for services to gender equality in 2015. Laura also writes for the Guardian newspaper and has recently published Girl Up, a follow up to the incredibly successful Everyday Sexism book published in 2014. 

Laura kicked off the event by telling us how the Project got started, and then began to describe how the Project has grown and developed since its humble beginnings.

One of the most poignant aspects of Laura’s talk was how shocking some of her anecdotes were. Many of us will have stories to tell about gender inequality, but Laura has hundreds of thousands. She has given people the confidence to speak up, and a platform through which to do so.

She also spoke eloquently about the intersectionality of feminism - touching upon issues faced by people of colour, people that are not able bodied, all sexualities and all genders.

Here's what some of our students had to say about her talk:

It was a very eye opening talk. Even as a woman it is hard to understand the scale of these issues and, after hearing Laura, I have begun to notice various instances of everyday sexism that would honestly have gone unnoticed before! I am very glad that we were given the opportunity to hear what Laura had to say and I know it will change how I live my life from now on!

-Emelie V, Arcadia University student, FYSAE

I loved it. I thought that Laura's presentation was detailed and comprehensive without feeling rehearsed, and she was incredibly approachable and conversational, considering what an expert on the topic she is. I think it's crucial for students like myself to be reminded of the real effects of sexism all around us, especially when we feel like we've achieved equality. 

-Samuel B, Messiah College student, London Intern

We would like to thank Laura once more for this eye-opening event, and we hope she enjoyed it as much as we did.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Coming up this semester in our Talk of The Town series, we are delighted to welcome Simon Woolley, one of the founders and Director of Operation Black Vote - an organisation which promotes racial justice and equality through political engagement. Simon has expertise in many areas including Black civil rights, policy research and development, campaign strategy and fundraising. Simon will discuss race relations in the UK and draw comparisons and contrasts with the USA.

Keep your eye on the Facebook group for more details on this Talk of the Town!