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The world has much to celebrate this International Women’s Day. Women are achieving political representation, economic success and academic acclaim, creating award-winning films and art, and leading innovation in science and technology. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by some brilliant women at The Conversation, both my editorial colleagues and many of the authors I work with on a daily basis.
As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, I’m particularly thinking of the Iranian women who have led protest movements and defied state authority and oppression in recent years. This piece is a fascinating look at Women Without Men, a feminist novella that the Iranian regime has been trying (and failing) to silence since the 1980s. It's now available in translation in the UK for the first time.
Around the world, literature is one area where women have long challenged the patriarchy, as writers, readers and fictional heroines. If you’re looking for your next read, take a journey with us through 200 years of feminist literary history.
We have further to go. Women’s health protections are being rolled back in some countries. In the UK, police have recognised Violence Against Women and Girls as a national emergency, on a par with terrorism. Even the design of public spaces – and toilets – means women’s and men’s experiences of the world around us are vastly different.
It’s thanks to academic research that we know about many of these disparities and challenges that mean gender inequality still harms women and men around the world. That’s why this International Women’s Day, I’m celebrating the work we publish here at The Conversation.
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