Feminist Futures: Recent Episodes
Wallis Grant
Feminism imagines a better future for the world - one where power is shared equally and people are not discriminated against for being who they are. But as an individual, the path to getting there can often seem unclear or overwhelming. Whose policies are going to tackle the climate crisis best? Who should I be lobbying to improve abortion access? How can I help get better pay for carers?
In this podcast series hosted by Wallis Grant, Feminist Futures explores not just what we want the future to look like but how we get there and what we can do to drive forward change. Exploring a different topic each week, with the help of experts from each field, this podcast will show how we can achieve a more equal and liberated society, one step after another.
Welcome to June's episode! This month, we're talking about the reading gap; why men read less, why they read less than women, and yet why all book prize winners are majority men (you do the maths)...
Here are some of the sources we talked about in this episode:
- https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2022/gender-gap-in-reading.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/09/why-do-so-few-men-read-books-by-women
- https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/men-not-reading-novels
Happy May and welcome back to another episode of Feminist Futures! This month, we look at diet culture and weight loss, with everything from why the BMI is racist and the rise of the body positivity movement to why weight is the least interesting thing about you.
As always, if you've enjoyed the episode, please give us a rate, like and subscribe on wherever you get your podcasts.
Happy April! The Feminist Futures team are back and this month, we're discussing women in politics.
Given the recent resignations of Jacinda Arden and Nicola Sturgeon, women's life and role in politics is having a light shown on it so we thought we'd dive into what the barriers are, why women may be better leaders than men and what nuclear weapons can tell us about women's leadership.
Stay tuned for the end where Wallis gives a sneak peak into her manifesto for running for office.
Thanks for tuning in!
Happy International Women's Day! You may be thinking, it's 2023, why would we still need it? We were too! Come explore our thoughts on IWD, the significance of its history, what you can do to make your IWD better at your company, and why Lauren may end up arrested for embracing people for equity...
Some sources talked about in the pod
- International Women's Day website
- World Economic Forum 2022 report on global gender pay gap
- Dazed Article
- Gender Pay Gap Bot
February's episode is out and we are discussing access to healthcare for women - the barriers and challenges faced by many; why access for women differs and how it does; and how it intersects with other factors (race, ability, sexuality) to compound inequalities.
Some of the articles discussed in the episode
- Health and Wellbeing Fund report (UK Gov)
- UK Government Strategy for Women's health
- Women and Health: the key to sustainable development
- Endometriosis UK
- Listening to Estrogen (The Cut)
- Davina McCall: Sex, myths and the menopause (Channel 4)
Happy 2023! The Feminist Future team are back with an episode on female representation in films, shows and books.
Ever watched something and couldn't believe how wrong the representation of a woman was? Or thought 'I could write better'?
Lauren and Wallis dive into the characters they like, the representation problem in Hollywood and what good, complex female characters would like to them.
December's episode is out and we're discussing the future of porn!
Many people may think that the realities of the porn industry sit in contrast to feminist values but with the rise of ethical and more women-led sites, there is a shift towards redefining who porn is for and what is portrayed.
Some links to things we discuss in the podcast
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Bellesa
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The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan
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Dipsea
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Literotica
Feminist Futures is back for season 2 and we have an exciting announcement to make - Wallis will be joined by friend and all-around wonderful human being, Lauren, as a co-host for the next season!
In this episode, they discuss all things season 2, why they believe feminism is important to each of them, and their hopes for the season to come.
As always, you can follow us on social media on:
Twitter @PodcastFutures
Instagram @feminisfuturespod
In this week’s episode I spoke to co-founder and U.K Executive Director of Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), Marissa Conway, to dissect what a feminist foreign policy is and why we need it. CFFP is a research and advocacy organisation that has become a critical voice in the space, working with governments and NGOs to transform feminist foreign policy into practice.
A feminist foreign policy may seem like a big and complicated topic to get into but at the heart of it is a framework for understanding who has power, who doesn’t and how we can change that in big policy decisions that affect everyone. Often that means unpicking or unlearning what has come before to move forward in a more equitable way.
Everything from how we police our borders and trade agreements right down to what individual’s buy or which healthcare they can have access to is influenced by global politics and we therefore need a feminist lens in it to ensure marginalised communities are supported and heard.
Visions for the future
🌎Moving towards a borderless world
📖Fully understanding our colonial history
🗣Civil society having a voice in the development of foreign policy
What you can do
✋Push back on ‘watered down’ versions of ‘state feminism’
🛠 Use feminism as a tool in your everyday life
👉Check out the work of CFFP: https://centreforfeministforeignpolicy.org/
We’re back after a very small series break with a great episode on the need to change who is making the news, in order to accurately reflect the experiences and feelings of the public it serves.
The National Council of Training for Journalists released a report last week that shows: 92% of journalists come from white ethnic groups, a higher proportion than across all UK workers. The media shapes important conversations in our lives, and if it doesn’t reflect the people it serves, it reinforces negative stereotypes and creates blind spots that have huge ramifications.
For the discussion, I am joined by Hannah Ajala of We Are Black Journos who talks us through her personal experiences working in the news industry and the small steps that the sector can take to ensure Black and other minority journalists are valued and prioritised.
Visions for the future
🗞Newsrooms that reflect the communities they serve
📝 Editors offering help and support to help Black and other minorities
🤝 Trust built with marginalised communities - no more mix-ups due to bias
What you can do
✊ Put pressure on the News Group to adopt more inclusive practices
📰 Read and pay for news sources that actively support raising the voices of marginalised groups
🙌Check out the work of We Are Black Journos who have an extensive network that Black journalists can tap into and practical steps allies can take to properly diversify the media
For this week’s podcast, we’re talking access to healthcare for trans people and how can create a system that works in their favour, not against them.
I’m joined by Alexa Moore from TransgenderNI, an amazing organisation dedicated to improving the lives of trans people in Northern Ireland.
As Alexa puts it in the episode, while the so-called ‘arguments’ of the ‘culture war’ continue, it distracts us from the real issues facing the trans community and one of those is access to healthcare. According to Stonewall, nearly a fifth (24%) of trans people surveyed fear discrimination from a healthcare provider, meaning many put off asking healthcare at all. We need to be creating a healthcare system that prioritises the needs of trans individuals, not vilifying them and Alexa and her colleagues have a plan on how to do just that.
Visions for the future
⇣ Decentralising care to allow trans people to access care through their GPs, for example.
⛔️ No gatekeeping of services based on whether you’ve accessed another, for example, like mental health
🤝 Meaningfully integrating trans people into the way services are run
What you can do
💰 Donate to support the work of TransgenderNI, or other trans organisations in your area
✍️ Write to your local MP, particularly if you live in NI, to highlight the need for urgent support & access to healthcare for trans communities
- Transgender NI have a helpful template here which you can personalise to your own experience - https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/urgent-support-for-trans-communities
✊ If you are a member of a political party in the UK, raise awareness of the issues surrounding access to healthcare and particularly from a Northern Irish perspective. We cannot allow parts of the UK to be left behind
Find out more about the work of TransgenderNI at - https://transgenderni.org.uk/
Today’s episode looks at Scottish independence and asks if going independent will make Scotland the socialist, feminist utopia we all want it to be. Spoiler: it won’t by default but it will us the tools to do so and that’s what’s so exciting.
My guest this week is Kirstein Rummery from Women for Independence (@womenforindependence). Kirstein is an incredible researcher who focuses on social policy at the University of Stirling and it was such a privilege to talk to her about Scotland’s future.
Visions for a feminist independent Scotland 🏴
⚖️ Gender equality written into our constitution
🤝 More women and minorities in a proportionally representative Scottish government
⚒️ Having all the tools available to make more socialist/feminist policies which we currently can’t do under devolution
What you can do
🗣 Continue to have conversations with those around you about what kind of future you want for Scotland
📚 Read information from independent researchers on issues that concern you
🙋♀️ Holding politicians accountable for any promises made in the run up to the referendum that impact women
If you are interested in joining Women for Independence, you can find out more at http://www.womenforindependence.org/
This week’s podcast is on the future of abortion care and how it should look in 2021. For it, I’m joined by Katherine O’Brien, Associate Director of Communications and Campaigns at BPAS. Katherine has a wealth of knowledge and expertise having worked at BPAS for 10 years and has led on a variety of campaigns to improve abortion access and reproductive healthcare across the UK.
One of the things that stayed with me from the conversation was the fact that it is medically possible for women and gender-diverse people to only take one pill a month for contraception but due to archaic abortion laws in the UK, we are being denied this option. It is a microcosm of how abortion care is set up in the UK - we could be doing it better but some arbitrary barrier is getting in the way.
Visions for the future of abortion care
📆Taking time off for an abortion, like you would for a dentist appointment
🩺 Choices around contraceptives being made in the interest of the patient, rather than availability or funding
⚖️ Laws that mean someone having an abortion is the sole person to decide whether they should have one or not
What you can do
✍️ Respond to the government’s consultation on home use of both pill for early medical abortion: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-use-of-both-pills-for-early-medical-abortion
- Open until 26th Feb 2020
*Anti-abortion advocates are really good at shouting the loudest when it comes to these things so if you feel like you can have your voice heard on this, please do!
💵 Donate to abortion rights charities - if you can, money is the best resource to ensure reproductive health rights are here to stay
*I’m a huge fan of Women on Web but there are many others including Abortion Support Network and Abortion Rights UK who do amazing work.
⚤ Check out the work of BPAS who have ongoing campaigns https://www.bpas.org/get-involved/campaigns/
For this week’s podcast, we’re looking at environmental and climate justice and asking - who has power in these spaces? I’m joined by Alexis McGivern, who is currently looking at community resistance to incinerators in the UK as part of her MPhil at Oxford University. Prior to this, Alexis spent three and a half years at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) working on issues of plastic pollution. And prior to that, we shared classes together in our undergrad (many moons ago)
Visions for a climate just future
🌍 Societies that value care and integrate this into the fabric of our everyday life
✊ Dealing with the colonial legacies by paying proper reparations and education that deals with the root of inequality and how this impacts the climate crisis
➡ Viewing a future that is not only doing damage control when it comes to the climate but that allows communities to flourish and live together with nature.
What you can do
📚 Read diverse perspectives on the climate crisis, particularly accounts from indigenous communities
*Search the hashtag #climateactivism and follow some BIPOC accounts
🗳 Email your local representative and hold them accountable for governments actions when it comes to the climate crisis
💬 Redefine who is an expert on the climate crisis by inviting those with non-traditional experiences in to speak about what they are seeing in their communities every day
Episode 2 looks at Universal Basic Income (UBI) and asks if UBI could help to lessen gender inequality, by allowing us to have the freedom to say ‘no’ to exploitative relationships. For it, I’m joined by Michael Pugh, Director and Co-Founder of the Basic Income Conversation, which promotes basic income in the UK and supports people and organisations to engage with UBI.
Visions for a UBI future
🩺 Huge improvement’s in people’s mental and physical health due to less financial stress
⛔️ Power to say no to exploitative relationships; whether that’s your landlord, employer or partner
🌍 More collective expressions of working together as we get our head above the water and be able to tackle longer-term problems such as the Climate Crisis
What you can do
🗣 Start a conversation with people and ask how UBI could benefit them - perfect Christmas dinner conversation 🎄
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- The Basic Income Conversation have loads of resources you can use to help with those discussions: https://www.basicincomeconversation.org/
💭 If you work in a third sector organisation, start discussions about how UBI could impact the area you are working in or adopt it as a policy ask for upcoming elections
➡️ Follow the work of UBI Lab Womxn: https://twitter.com/UBILabWomen
This week's podcast is all about the future of fashion and how we move towards a more sustainable and ethical model. For it, I’ve been joined by Erin from the Fair Fashion Project, which is an incredible resource to educate people on the detrimental impacts of the fashion industry and it showcases the exciting and creative alternatives available in the slow fashion world.
Vision for the future
- 📒Updated school curriculum to include learning on how clothes are made and the impact it has on the environment
- 🥼Made-to-order clothes becoming the norm: forcing us to slow down and only buy things we really need
- 🌿Robust legislation in the UK to curb 'greenwashing' and having these properly enforced 🧑🎓Good practice and ethics being integrated into fashion degrees
What you can do 📚Read up about the conditions of garment workers and sign petitions calling for Fair Pay * Oxfam What She Makes Campaign - https://whatshemakes.oxfam.org.au/ * UK based petition to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/328335 * COVID-19 petition - Call on brands to step up and protect workers - https://labourbehindthelabel.org/covid-19-support-workers/ 📧Email brands to tell them why you are no longer supporting them and encourage others to do so through social media 🙅♀️Unfollow one fast-fashion brand and follow a slow fashion account that matches your ethics or deepens your learning on the topic
Welcome to Feminist Futures.
A space not only to imagine what a better world would look like but how we get there and how we can make change happen.