Insights

What is happening to women’s rights? Are we seeing a counter revolution, a correction, a blip or a re-framing and where will the leadership come from?

This was the topic for a dinner earlier this week, hosted by Hawthorn Advisors, in honour of Baroness Harman, who had dedicated 40 years of her tough and distinguished political career to supporting women and who has recently been appointed UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls, reporting to the Prime Minister.

Harriet Harman’s wry, honest and principled reflections on the progress of women and the current threats were followed by a round table discussion. Baroness Harman’s argument is that feminism has gone from an insurgency to Establishment and we may have lost sympathy wrapping the cause in some of the corporate/bureaucratic language. We need to reclaim the cause. Others talked about making arguments newly couched in enlightened self interest or pragmatism rather than social justice.

It was fascinating hearing from different generations of remarkable women and different perspectives. For instance, the young explorer Lucy Shepherd emailed afterwards to say: “I found it so fascinating and it really made me stop to ask what can I do to help fight this fight.”

Make no mistake, this matters. On Monday I attended an event at the Imperial War Museum with my co founder of Friends of Afghan Women Network, Shabnam Nasimi; FAWN is a network supported by volunteers at Hawthorn Advisors. Shabnam, originally from Afghanistan, and I went to listen to Dr Denis Mukwege, a Nobel prize winning gynecologist in the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving the Imperial War Museum annual lecture on the subject of the enormous spike in sexual violence, fuelled by the conflict minerals there. He said that women’s rights are not a given, nor forever, but have to be continually asserted.

The women at the Hawthorn dinner, and our male allies, concluded that this is a chance for the UK Government to show leadership, in partnership with businesses and civil society. 

List of guests present : Baroness Harman, Dame Karen Pierce, Baroness Gray, Baroness Hodge, Professor Deborah Prentice, vice-chancellor at the University Cambridge,  Lucy Shepherd, explorer, Shabnam Nasimi, Afghan Activist, Charlotte Crosswell, business leader, Annia Spiliopoulos, entrepreneur, Jacqueline Simmons, editorial lead Europe, Middle East & Africa at Bloomberg, Hannah Cockburn-Logie, deputy director of communications at the Gates Foundation, John Evans, CEO of Hawthorn Advisors, Ross Hawkins, Partner at  Hawthorn Advisors and Tilly Roylance, Senior Consultant, Hawthorn Advisors.