Laura Bates, a best-selling author and keynote speaker, founded the Everyday Sexism Project, which has amassed over 100,000 testimonies of gender inequality. Her notable books include "Everyday Sexism," shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year, and "Girl Up," a Sunday Times bestseller.
Laura collaborates with politicians, businesses, schools, and organisations, including the Council of Europe and the United Nations, to promote equality and diversity. Her work highlights the business benefits of addressing gender inequality and misogyny, noting that tackling these issues can significantly enhance performance and productivity.
Her activism has led to significant achievements, such as convincing Facebook to revise its policies on rape and domestic abuse content, integrating sexual consent and healthy relationships into school curricula, and improving the British Transport Police's response to sexual violence incidents.
In recognition of her contributions, Laura received a British Empire Medal in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, participated in President Obama’s White House Summit on the United State of Women, and was named Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine, and The Sunday Times Magazine.
In this session, Laura Bates explores the reality of gender inequality across our society and the ways in which it manifests itself in young peoples’ lives. She tackles issues such as intersecting injustice, media sexism, political inequality, gender stereotypes and sexual consent. Examining questions like ‘what is sexual harassment?’, Laura looks at how young people can play a vital role in creating a more equal future.
Laura Bates starts 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. Laura then highlights the business case for tackling the problem and suggesting robust and actionable solutions from both an organisational and individual perspective.
In this session, Laura Bates focuses on what men can do to help when it comes to gender equality. Against a broader backdrop of societal gender imbalance, Laura explores the ways in which stereotypes and expectations present challenges to men as well as women. She deconstructs some of the myths and misconceptions that might prevent men from being part of positive change. Book this session for an active look at practical, positive action male allies can take to shift stereotypes, support survivors and create change in their own sphere.
Laura Bates takes your team on 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 pick up artists and ‘men going their own way’. In this comprehensive overview of this little-understood form of extremism, Laura shares a 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.
