Activist, writer, speaker

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Laura Bates is an activist, writer, speaker and journalist. She is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of gender inequality. The project raises awareness of sexism, provides a cathartic and empowering space for survivors’ stories to be heard and believed, and uses those stories to create real-world change in partnership with politicians, businesses and organisations from the United Nations to the Council of Europe.

“A brilliant thinker and campaigner.”

Financial Times

“Laura Bates is showing us the path to both intimate and global survival.”

Gloria Steinem

“Mature, eloquent and passionate, Bates is in many ways the voice of her generation.”

Huffington Post

AUTHOR

Laura is the bestselling author of eight books, which have been translated into 7 languages.

Her first book, Everyday Sexism, published by Simon and Schuster in 2014, was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and Polemic of the Year at the Political Book Awards. Her second book, Girl Up, a survival guide for teenage girls, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Men Who Hate Women, a ground-breaking undercover investigation into the world of incels and the terrorism nobody is talking about, was named one of the best books of the year by Waterstones, The Guardian and GQ in 2021. Fix the System, Not the Women, was published in May 2022 and provided the inspiration for a national anti-misogyny advertising campaign.

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SPEAKER

Laura’s talks, workshops and keynote speeches draw on over a decade of anti-sexism activism.

Taking in topics from workplace sexual harassment to school sexism, women in tech to online abuse, Laura’s speaking work has taken her around the world, from Mexico to the Cayman Islands, from the United Nations to the Council of Europe. She has spoken at Wembley stadium, addressed 4,000 Teach First trainees, and presented at the House of Commons, the Royal Academy, the Sydney Opera House and New York Public Library, among many others.

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ACTIVIST

Laura’s work alongside other activists has seen her change Facebook’s policies on sexual violence, help to put consent on the national curriculum and work with the British Transport Police to transform their approach to sexual offences.

Her most recent book, Fix the System, Not the Women, inspired a national advertising campaign #HopeUnited, that saw England footballers come together to denounce sexist abuse. She was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s birthday honours list and 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, an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and was awarded the Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee.

Laura is frequently called on by policy makers to submit evidence to parliamentary reports, to speak in the Houses of Parliament, to advise government departments on issues such as the RSE curriculum and, most recently, to be part of the advisory team feeding into the Home Office ‘Enough’ campaign.