In 1995, the UN vowed to advance ‘equality, development and peace for all women, everywhere.’ Instead, in the Beijing Declaration’s thirtieth anniversary year, the world is lurching dangerously away from such democratic and progressive ideals—reinventing nationalist identities based on toxic masculine values and embracing economic policies against women’s interests. This reality exists in every type of country. Why does oppression, rather than feminism, still dominate our world? In their new book, Campbell and Gupta discuss patriarchy’s many faces in the age of globalisation, exploring the political systems and cultures of eight very different societies. It takes readers from the extraordinary anti-capitalist women’s revolution in Kurdistan to the theocracies of Islamic State and Saudi Arabia; from China’s one-party state to Iceland’s democracy; and to South Africa, Russia and El Salvador—all radically changed since the fall of apartheid, communism and military dictatorship respectively. Despite patriarchy’s remarkable shapeshifting powers to undermine feminist solidarity, Planet Patriarchy is equally a story of sisterhood and resistance, interviewing defenders of women’s rights about their cause and their country. Gender inequality endures, everywhere—but so does feminism. Campbell and Gupta’s fascinating discoveries show us how this timeless showdown is taking shape in, and being shaped by, the systems we live under today. You can order the book here: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/planet-patriarchy/
About the speakers
Beatrix Campbell is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster who is regarded as a provocative and influential feminist, and by the Angry Harry website as ‘one of the most revolting women…’ She has been described as writing with ‘lyrical brutality’. She worked for the Morning Star (formerly the Daily Worker), later for Time Out and, after a long equal pay strike, joined the majority of the staff in founding City Limits; active in Women’s Liberation and a founding member of Red Rag; her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, the New Statesman, Marxism Today; she has collaborated with Judith Jones on two successful plays, and worked as writer in residence with men in prisons. She has received many awards, several honorary doctorates for her work on community, crime, child abuse, gender and politics. Melissa Benn described her as a ‘quintessential British writer’. Her recent book Secrets and Silence, an exposure of the Cleveland child sexual abuse cover-up, has been recommended by Sir Andrew McFarlane, the leading family judge in the land. Her book Wigan Pier Revisited won the Cheltenham Festival Prize, and her documentary Listen to the Children won the First-Time Producers Award. She received an OBE for services to equality.
Rahila Gupta is a freelance journalist, author and activist. She is Chair of Southall Black Sisters, a group which has campaigned for and supported black and minoritised women escaping violence. Her poems and short stories have been published in several anthologies. Her books include: a collection of essays she edited, From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters in 2003; Provoked, the story of a battered woman who killed her violent husband and she co-wrote the screenplay of the film which was released in 2007; Enslaved, on immigration controls, was published in 2007. Her play, a monologue in verse, Don’t Wake Me: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong, ran in London, Edinburgh, New York, and four cities in India between 2012-14 and was nominated for a number of awards. She has written for the Guardian, New Humanist, New Internationalist and openDemocracy among other magazines, journals and websites. She has edited and contributed to Turning the Page (2019), an anthology of writings by the Southall Black Sisters support group. She is a Royal Literary Fund writing fellow. Her co-written book with Beatrix Campbell, Planet Patriarchy, was published in July 2025.
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This is Seminar 2 of the 2025/26 Centre for Gender and Violence Research Seminar Series. Please see the 2025 and 2026 Events pages for further events in this series.