Laura Bates
Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of global gender inequality.
Laura Bates's videos
What Laura Bates's clients say
"Thank you so much for today, it was an amazing message for our school community to hear. Thanks for planning and delivering it so well. The content is so important and for all of us who have been subject to sexism in all its forms. You pitched it perfectly and your mastery when it came to adapting it for the older ones was impressive. The staff room was buzzing and so were our kids."
"On behalf of the partners of Taylor Wessing LLP I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Laura for presenting at our offices last week. Her presentation was pitched at just the right level and was considered by us all to be a huge success – hard hitting but thoughtful and insightful at the same time. We've had some great feedback from many of the attendees and that is exactly what we were hoping to achieve."
"What an inspirational talk for us! Thank you so much for delivering such an empowering and encouraging message with such clarity, confidence and intelligence. Girls and staff were all raving about it afterwards."
"Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Thank you so much - by far one of the most engaged audiences we've had and I'm not surprised - as someone has said it's just such a beautifully simple idea it's delightful to see the fires it's lit. Really well done."
"Many thanks for your fantastic talk at GSS. For many people, yours was the highlight of the conference."
"I have never known such a response to a speaker before. So many staff and pupils have spoken to or emailed me already, saying they think you should come back next year – or next week actually! – as you were the most amazing speaker we’ve ever had and your topic and project are so hugely relevant. I felt as though my eyes had been opened."
"Your talk was fantastically engaging and debunked so many of the myths we hear and even hold subconsciously as women. My colleagues were still talking about your talk at lunchtime – people left the room very invigorated and spurred to action."
"Your visit last time was truly inspirational for all. It was a wonderful highlight of the year… a truly fabulous session. If I may say so, there was no finer guest speaker in my nineteen years here."
"Genuinely had a bit of a cry listening to Laura. Don’t know if it’s just feeling validated and that my own experience isn’t me ‘being dramatic’. But thank you. Incredibly stark and scary but I think that having a talk like this really had a massive impact."
"I have received many positive comments from staff and boys alike about the day and I would like to thank you once again for the tremendous work that you did for us."
"Laura was an absolutely brilliant speaker -- her presentation was accessible, powerful, impeccably researched and evidenced and engaging. It was a masterclass and did a tremendous amount to elevate our event and the dialogues that took place during it."
Available for
Languages:Â
- English
Laura Bates's 2024 biography
Meet Laura Bates
Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of global gender inequality. She is the author of Everyday Sexism (shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year), the Sunday Times bestseller Girl Up, Misogynation, The Burning (nominated for the Carnegie Medal), The Trial, and Men Who Hate Women. Her most recent book, Fix the System, Not the Women, was named one of Waterstones’ best books of 2022. Her books have been translated into 8 languages.
Laura writes regularly for the Guardian and the New York Times amongst others and won a British Press Award in 2015. She is a frequent media commentator across Newsnight, Today, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, CNN and more. She has presented two BBC television documentaries and is a consultant for productions tackling issues around gender inequality.
Laura works closely with politicians, businesses, schools, police forces and organisations from the Council of Europe to the United Nations to tackle gender inequality. Her campaign work alongside other activists has included persuading Facebook to change its policies on rape and domestic abuse content, putting sexual consent and healthy relationships on the school curriculum and improving the way in which the British Transport Police respond to incidents of sexual violence. Her speaking work has taken her from Wembley Stadium to the Sydney Opera House to President Obama’s White House Summit on the United State of Women.
Laura is a contributor at Women Under Siege, a New York-based project tackling rape in conflict worldwide and she is patron of SARSAS, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support. She is on the Board of Directors for Equimundo, an NGO which is a global leader in engaging men and boys to advance gender equality and prevent violence against women.
Laura was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to gender equality in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2015 and has been named a Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine. She has been named on the Woman’s Hour Power List and was one of the BBC’s inaugural 100 Women. She is the recipient of two honorary degrees and was awarded the Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee. In the US, she has received the Women’s Media Award from the Women’s Media Center, and been named one of CNN’s 10 ‘Visionary Women’.
Laura is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of the Hay Festival and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. She has judged the Women’s Prize, the BBC Young Writers Award, the YA Book Prize and the RSL Giles St Aubyn award, and has been on the judging panel for the Children’s Laureate.
Laura Bates's 2024 talks & topics
Everyday Sexism at School
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.
Male Allyship
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.
Workplace Equality
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.
Incels and extremist misogyny
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.
Laura Bates's 2024 speaking fees
- United Kingdom
Specific fees fall within the ranges shown. These are presented as a guide only and are subject to change without notice.
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