Laura Bates
{{Short description|English feminist writer}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Laura Bates
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|BEM|FRSL}}
| image = Laura Bates Conway Hall.png
| alt =
| caption = Bates in 2014
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1986|08|27}}
| birth_place = Oxford, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation =
| alma_mater = {{nowrap|St John's College, Cambridge}}
| period =
| subject = Feminism
| movement =
| notableworks = {{unbulleted list | Everyday Sexism (2014) | Girl Up (2016) |
The Burning (2019)}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Nick Taylor|2014}}
| children =
| awards = British Empire Medal
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| years_active =
| website = {{URL|laurabates.co.uk}}
}}
Laura Carolyn Bates {{post-nominals|country=GBR|BEM|FRSL}} (born 27 August 1986) is an English feminist writer. She founded the Everyday Sexism Project website in April 2012. Her first book, Everyday Sexism, was published in 2014.
Biography
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhjsRjC6B8U Everyday sexism: Laura Bates at TEDxCoventGardenWomen], TEDx Talks, 16:05, 17 January 2014}}
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsHwzLNGXTg Shouting Back :Laura Bates, Caroline Criado-Perez and Samira Ahmed at Conway Hall] 19:30, 9 October 2014}}
Bates' parents are Diane Elizabeth Bates, a French language teacher, and Adrian Keith Bates, a physician.{{Cite web|title=Bates, Laura Carolyn, (born 27 Aug. 1986), Founder, Everyday Sexism Project, 2012|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-281470|access-date=2021-08-28|website=Who's who & who was who|year=2014|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U281470|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}} She grew up in the London Borough of Hackney and Taunton, and has an older sister and a younger brother. Her parents divorced when Bates was in her twenties.{{cite news|last=Bates|first=Hannah|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10757216/Rape-threats-groping-and-perverts-Everyday-Sexism-why-Laura-Bates-is-shouting-back.html|title=Rape Threats, Groping and Perverts – Everyday Sexism: Why Laura Bates Is Shouting Back|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=12 April 2014|accessdate=26 January 2016}} She attended King's College, Taunton. She read English literature at St John's College, Cambridge, and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2007. Bates remained in Cambridge for two-and-a-half years as a researcher for the psychologist Susan Quilliam, who was working on an updated edition of The Joy of Sex.
Bates then worked as an actress and a nanny, a period during which she has said she experienced sexism at auditions and found the young girls she was caring for were already preoccupied with their body image.{{cite news|last1=Hines|first1=Sophie|title=Laura Bates Wins Ultimate New Feminist 2013|url=http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a24365/laura-bates-ultimate-new-feminist/|accessdate=20 August 2014|date=5 December 2013}}{{cite web|title=BBC Radio 4: Woman's Hour Power List 2014 – Top Ten Revealed: 9. Laura Bates, Campaigner|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/4GvjhZxHsnc3YXJbZfNXsKl/9-laura-bates |publisher=BBC |accessdate=28 July 2014}}
Everyday Sexism Project
The Everyday Sexism Project website was founded in 2012. Around the third anniversary of the website, in April 2015, Everyday Sexism had reached 100,000 entries.{{cite news|last=Sanghani|first=Radhika|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11539971/Everyday-Sexism-hashtag-A-day-in-the-life.html|title=A Day in the Life of the Everyday Sexism Hashtag|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=16 April 2015|accessdate=26 January 2016}} Bates has said that she has faced abuse online. After her publication of Men Who Hate Women in 2020, Bates said she received deepfake pornography images of herself performing sexual acts on the sender.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/31/inside-the-taylor-swift-deepfake-scandal-its-men-telling-a-powerful-woman-to-get-back-in-her-box |title=Inside the Taylor Swift deepfake scandal: 'It's men telling a powerful woman to get back in her box' |last=Saner |first=Emine |newspaper=The Guardian |date=31 January 2024 |access-date=31 January 2024}}
Bates' first book Everyday Sexism, based on the project, was published by the London subsidiary of Simon & Schuster in 2014.{{cite book|last=Bates|first=Laura|title=Everyday Sexism|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=London|year=2014|isbn=9781471131578}}
Career
After Everyday Sexism, Bates published several more books about sexism. Bates is a contributor to The Guardian,{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/laura-bates |title=Laura Bates - contributor page |website=The Guardian |access-date=19 November 2022}} The Independent{{Cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/author/laura-bates |title=Laura Bates - contributor page |website=The Independent |access-date=19 November 2022}} and other publications. She is a contributor to the New York–based Women Under Siege Project.{{Cite web |url=https://womensmediacenter.com/profile/laura-bates |title=Laura Bates - contributor page |website=Women Under Siege Project |access-date=19 November 2022}}
Honours and awards
- 2013: Cosmopolitan magazine's Ultimate New Feminist Award in 2013.
- 2014: BBC's 100 women.{{Cite news |date=2014-10-26 |title=Who are the 100 Women 2014? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-29758792 |access-date=2022-12-17}}
- 2015: Awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to gender equality.United Kingdom: {{London Gazette |issue=61256 | date=12 June 2015 |pages=B28| supp=y}}{{cite news|last=Bates|first=Laura|title=Queen's Birthday Honours List: Knights Outnumber Dames Five to One|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/12/queens-birthday-honours-list-knights-outnumber-dames-five-to-one|work=The Guardian|date=12 June 2015}}
- 2018: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/28/royal-society-of-literature-40-under-40-fellows|title=Royal Society of Literature Admits 40 New Fellows to Address Historical Biases|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=28 June 2018|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=3 July 2018}}
- 2020: Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.{{Cite web |title=Everyday Sexism activist and founder of Raspberry Pi elected as Honorary Fellows of St John's |website=St John's College, University of Cambridge |date=9 May 2020 |url=https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/everyday-sexism-activist-and-founder-raspberry-pi-elected-honorary-fellows-st-johns |access-date=19 November 2022}}
Personal life
Publications
- 2014: Everyday Sexism: The Project that Inspired a Worldwide Movement, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|1471131572}}
- 2016: Girl Up: Kick Ass, Claim Your Woman Card, and Crush Everyday Sexism, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|9781471149504}}
- 2018: Misogynation: The True Scale of Sexism, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|9781471169243}}
- 2019: The Burning, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|1471170209}}
- 2020: Men Who Hate Women, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|9781471194337}}
- 2022: Fix the System, Not the Women, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|9781398514331}}
- 2023: Sisters of Sword and Shadow, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|9781398520042}}
- 2025: The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny, Simon & Schuster {{ISBN|9781471190483}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
- {{Official website|https://www.laurabates.co.uk/}}
- [http://everydaysexism.com/ The Everyday Sexism Project]
- [https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism EverydaySexism] on Twitter
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Laura}}
Category:21st-century English women writers
Category:21st-century English writers
Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Category:English feminist writers
Category:English women non-fiction writers
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Category:Recipients of the British Empire Medal
Category:Writers from Hackney Central