Page 21 - The Keble Review 2016

Keble Graduate students Deniz Aydin (2015) and Loulwa Al Rasheed-Wright (2015) interview three alumnae on the ‘Gender Debate’ panel at the Old Vic
for many of us, the 8th March signifies International Women’s Day. While the event has its early origins in
Socialist organisations, it is today celebrated much more widely. Campaigners have historically used International Women’s Day to highlight issues faced by women, ranging from suffrage to violence and education.
In recent years, the debate on gender has come to include contemporary questions, such as equal pay and women in tech.
This March, we had the opportunity to attend the ‘Gender Debate’ held at the Old Vic Theatre on International Women’s Day, which involved three Keble alumnae. The debate was introduced by the Old Vic’s Executive Director, Kate Varah (1994),
and featured Caroline Criado-Perez (2009), a journalist and activist, and Anne- Marie Imafidon (2006), businesswoman and founder of STEMettes. In addition
to these three Keble alumnae, the panel included Shami Chakrabarti, lawyer and human rights campaigner, Jane Duncan, the President of RIBA, and Kate Jenkins, Chair of the International Women’s Forum UK. The ‘Gender Debate’ featured as part of the ‘Old Vic Voices Off’ series of talks, which seek to animate the themes of the Theatre’s productions.
One theme that featured prominently
in the debate was ‘preaching to the converted’. That is, how far can debates such as these truly make an impact when their audiences are already ‘converted’ to the cause of gender equality? During our interview, Caroline suggested that the movement could be suffering from issues of language and jargon, but thinks that ‘most people are reasonable. Most people don’t want to live in an unfair world. It’s about finding ways of explaining gender injustice to people who don’t experience it, or who don’t understand it.’ From a directorial perspective, Kate suggested that ‘by putting dissenting voices on a panel’ we can balance debates and attract broader audiences.
The Gender Debate
Pictured (l-r): Deniz Aydin, Anne-Marie Imafidon, Caroline Criado-Perez, Kate Varah, Loulwa Al Rasheed-Wright
Although live performance clearly had
its benefits, the debate highlighted the importance of technology in contemporary feminism. Not only does technology provide access to a broader range of people, but it is also a means through which women can empower themselves. For example, Caroline has used the online petition platform ‘change.org’ for her “We need women on British banknotes” campaign, collecting more than 36,000 signatures for her
cause. In 2015, Caroline was awarded an OBE ‘for services to Equality and Diversity, particularly in the Media’. Speaking about social media, Caroline argued that ‘it has given more women and a greater diversity of women access to a public voice than ever before – but it has also given a public voice to people who hate women and wish to shut them up.’ Despite her negative experiences of online harassment on
social media during her campaign, Caroline ultimately believes that ‘social media is more good than bad’, particularly with regard to its democratizing potential.
Anne-Marie works at the intersection of technology and women’s empowerment through her non-profit organization, STEMettes, which was “set up to help
combat the lack of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in a new way.” Anne-Marie shared with us striking facts and figures: within the EU, in every 1,000 women only 29 hold a degree in ICT, compared to 95 men, and only 4 women in 1,000 work
in the ICT sector. In order to change this disparity, Anne-Marie works everyday
to attract young women and girls aged 5-21 to the STEM industries through “hackathons, school workshops - involving lots of fun, free food, and giveaways.” However, she emphasized the role of mentors and role models as the most important way through which STEMettes aims to fulfil its mission of inspiring the next generation of females.
For us, meeting these three inspiring Keble alumnae was a fantastic experience. Although International Women’s Day only comes
once a year, the Debate demonstrated how women are working every day to improve gender equality. The issues raised by our interviewees profoundly impact the lives of both men and women today, and present further questions about the future.
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