Laura Bates
Founder of The Everyday Sexism Project and author of Fix the System, Not the Women
- Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of global gender inequality.
Full Profile
Laura Bates – Best-Selling Author and Founder of the Everyday Sexism Project
Laura Bates is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a continually growing collection of more than 250,000 testimonies highlighting gender inequality. Her acclaimed books include Everyday Sexism (shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year), the Sunday Times bestseller Girl Up, and Fix the System, Not the Women. Laura contributes regularly to publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian, and is a frequent media commentator and consultant for television productions addressing issues of gender inequality.
Laura collaborates closely with politicians, businesses, schools, and global organisations—including the Council of Europe and the United Nations—to promote equality and diversity. Her work also explores the growing business case for addressing gender inequality and misogyny in the workplace, recognising that tackling these issues significantly enhances performance and productivity.
Through her campaigning, alongside other activists, Laura has achieved major impact—persuading Facebook to revise its policies on rape and domestic abuse content, securing the inclusion of sexual consent and healthy relationships in the school curriculum, and improving the British Transport Police’s response to incidents of sexual violence. She is widely recognised as one of the leading voices of fourth-wave feminism.
In recognition of her influential work, Laura was awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, participated in President Obama’s White House Summit on the State of Women, and has been named Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine, and The Sunday Times Magazine. She has also appeared on the Woman’s Hour Power List and was part of the BBC’s inaugural 100 Women. Laura is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
As a keynote speaker, Laura has addressed audiences around the world, delivering talks for leading global organisations including Google, the World Trade Organization, Viacom, Paramount Pictures, EY, and UBS.
Talks
Exploring the reality of gender inequality across our society and looking at the ways in which it manifests itself in young peoples’ lives. Tackling issues such as intersecting injustice, media sexism, political inequality, gender stereotypes and sexual consent. Examining questions like ‘what is sexual harassment?’ Looking at how young people can play a vital role in creating a more equal future. As well as talks for students Laura also offers training for teachers and talks for parents.
Workshops focused on what men can do to help. Against a broader backdrop of societal gender imbalance, exploring the ways in which stereotypes and expectations present challenges to men as well as women and deconstructing some of the myths and misconceptions that might prevent men from being part of positive change. An active look at practical, positive action male allies can take to shift stereotypes, support survivors and create change in their own sphere.
Starting with a contextual framework of the wider picture of gender inequality across politics, media, STEM, culture and the scale of violence against women in our society, before zooming in to look at how these issues manifest themselves uniquely within the workplace. Exploring the complexity of workplace harassment and discrimination, the ways it intersects with other forms of prejudice such as racism and homophobia and the barriers to reporting. Highlighting the business case for tackling the problem and suggesting robust and actionable solutions from both an organisational and individual perspective.
A journey inside the secretive online world of the ‘manosphere’, lifting the lid on over 2 years of undercover research, infiltrating communities from incels and men’s rights activists to pickup artists and ‘men going their own way’. A comprehensive overview of this little-understood form of extremism, including close examination of radicalisation and recruitment techniques, particularly impacting vulnerable young people, and some of the ways in which teachers, parents and law enforcement can recognise potential red flags and play a positive role in supporting young people who might be at risk.