I spoke to Lily Malcolm-Watts, our campus’ superstar feminist who aims to promote equality for women. Not only is she the creator and president of Grey Femsoc, but she also had the privilege of representing the UK in the G(irls)20 summit in Australia this summer.
So can you explain what exactly G(irls)20 is and what it involves?
G(irls)20 aims to cultivate a new generation of female leaders through education, entrepreneurship and global experiences. The delegates are chosen based on their innovative ideas, community capacity, leadership pursuits and understanding of the importance of the economic empowerment of girls and women, and are taken through a series of capacity building workshops before together creating a communiqué on the economic advancement of women and girls which is shared with G20 leaders.
Why is feminism so important to you?
I’ve been incredibly lucky in my upbringing and have had a multitude of opportunities to fulfil my potential, but when I was working in West Africa I realised this is not the situation for the majority of women and girls around the world. It makes no sense economically or morally to exclude half of the world’s population in education and employment sectors. In addition, women are faced with much higher rates of sexual harassment and violence and this is something I feel very passionately about reducing, and feminism, the belief in, and action towards, social, economic and political equality, is the best way I see of doing that.
What would you say is the main adversity faced by women?
One only has to look at the daily newspapers, the TV, social media and the streets to see the greatest obstacle for girls and women in Britain. In this country, sexism is ingrained and instances of it are ignored. The normalization of sexism in everyday life undermines the confidence and empowerment of women and girls by creating fear of stepping out, of speaking up, of seizing opportunities. Women in positions of power or influence are judged more on their appearance than their ability and are often mocked and ridiculed, not only by men but by other women. As a result women are less likely to fight for equal pay or job opportunities, for freedom from violence and sexual assault. It is the attitude of our society towards women that is the greatest obstacle, and until there are serious steps taken to say ‘this is not ok’ it will continue to stand in the way of women and girls fulfilling their potential across all walks of life.
What stereotype do you want to dispel about feminism?
I think the main stereotype people have of feminists is that we are ‘man-haters’. Although this stereotype does come from the radical feminism movement of the 60’s, the reality is that most feminists don’t hate men – I certainly don’t! I think the gender stereotypes that are so deeply ingrained in our society are seriously damaging to everybody. It’s not about believing women are better – it’s about believing we can all do better in achieving equality.
What aims do you have for Grey Femsoc this year?
I have several. The main one is to create a friendly, safe and relaxed culture where both women and men can come to discuss anything pertaining to sexism. Secondly, I want FemSoc to make a difference – both just by creating and encouraging conversations around issues such as consent, sexism in the media, trans rights etc. and also by taking part in campaigns which promote issues we feel strongly about. Thirdly, I want to disseminate information so as to ensure more people feel empowered to stand up about these issues and feel able to talk with authority on them.
Ideally what do you hope will change for our generation of women?
Ideally? I hope that we will be free of the social constructs. I hope there will be a system of meritocracy, where women and men are in positions of authority and power because of what they have done, not what gender, race, class or sexuality they are. I want women to be able to say, wear and act as they wish without fear of being judged, scorned, assaulted or killed. These are high hopes and we have a long way to go but I truly believe that now is the time. The conversation is often at the forefront of people’s minds now and I think our generation is vying for a change.