Laura Bates

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“Laura Bates is showing us the path to both intimate and global survival.” – Gloria Steinem

Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a popular keynote speaker, and a bestselling author. Her books include Everyday Sexism which was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year, and the Sunday Times bestseller Girl Up. She regularly writes for publications including The Guardian and is a frequent consultant for TV productions around gender inequality.

Laura is also the Vice President of the Hay Literary Festival, and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Laura is a frequent media commentator across TV and Radio, and has appeared on BBC Breakfast, Newsnight, Today, CNN, Channel 4 News, Loose Women, Woman’s Hour, and Lorraine.

She was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2015 from the Late Queen for her work around sexism and gender inequality; she participated in President Obama’s White House Summit on the United State of Women, and has been named Woman of the Year by many publications including Cosmopolitan.

For more details on how Laura can add value to your event, contact us on 0044 (0)1753 439289

EVERYDAY SEXISM PROJECT

Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a collection of over 200,000 testimonies of global gender inequality, sexism, sexual harassment, rape, and workplace discrimination.

Founded in 2012, what started as a UK project, as sprung up around the world in countries such as Denmark, were the project is used to lobby politicians and challenge sexist media coverage.

Laura’s aim from the project is to “prove a continuum exists between the casual, normalised sexism of street harassment and so-called workplace ‘banter’ and the shockingly high levels of rape and sexual violence in our society”.

The project was initially set out to raise awareness, and has since reached over a million online visits, over 300,000 social media followers, and the thousands of people who have heard Laura speak.

Specific campaigns include:

– Women 4 Refugee Women: to highlight the misogyny and sexual violence faced by refugee women

– #DoubleDiscrimination: revealed the intersection of sexism with other forms of prejudice

– #ShoutingBack: highlighting street harassment

– #StandingUp: workplace sexual harassment

– #WhenIWas: childhood sexual abuse

– #FBrape: Facebook’s policies on domestic and sexual violence content

– #SREnow: a campaign calling for sexual consent, porn, healthy relationship, and LGBTQ identities to be taught in schools

Laura works with schools up and down the country, businesses, police forces, and social media companies to drive real-world change in the world of sexism. There is a particular focus on abuse of women in typically male-dominated workplaces, such as law and tech, highlighting the reality of discrimination faced by women in those industries.

In the 10+ years since the project was launched, the international conversation on everyday sexism has hit the United Nations, and the Council of Europe. The project has also been shown at Beyonce’s Twickenham Stadium ‘Sound of Change’ concert, televised to over a billion people worldwide.

Laura has also worked with a range of charities and partnerships related to sexism, such as the Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support where she is Patron; she is Contributor at the New-York based organisation Women Under Siege; and is on the Board of Directors for Promundo, a global leader that engages men to advance gender equality.

WRITER

Laura regularly writes for publications, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, TIME, Stylist, Grazia, Elle, Glamour, and The New York Times. In 2015 she won a British Press ward for her contributions.

She is also the bestselling author of a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, which have bee translated into more than 8 languages.

NON-FICTION

– Everyday Sexism (2014) which is a fun-filled manual for how to survive as a woman in the 21st Century, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year.

– Girl Up (2018) is a survival guide for teenage girls and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

– Misogynation (2019) is a collection of essays depicting the true scale of sexism.

– Men Who Hate Women (2020) into incels, pickup artists, and extreme misogyny, and was named by Marie Claire as one of its ’30 Books Every Woman Should Tick Off Her Reading List Before Turning 30’.

– Fix the System, Not the Women (2022) which combines stories with evidence on sexual injustice, and was named one of Waterstones’ Best Books of the Year.

FICTION

– The Burning (2019) which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal

– The Trial (2021)

– Sisters of Sword and Shadow (2023) – what if the Knights of the Round Table had a female counterpart?

– Sisters of Fire and Fury (2024)

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Laura’s campaigning and advocacy has seen her awarded a wide range of awards and accolades, including:

– Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine, and The Sunday Times Magazine

– Named on the Woman’s Hour Power List

– Named as one of the BBC’s Inaugural 100 Women

– The Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute

– One of CNN’s 10 Visionary Women

– Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature

– Honorary Fellowship from St John’s College Cambridge

– Honorary Doctorate from the University of Suffolk

– Honorary Doctorate from the University of Worcester

– Gold Medal for Contribution to Discourse from Trinity College Dublin

– James Joyce Award from the University College Dublin’s Literary and Historical Society

– Women’s Media Centre Digital Media Award

– Praeses Elit Award from the Dublin University Law Society

CORPORATE

Laura regularly works with businesses, Politian’s, schools, police forces, and global organisations such as the United Nations to tackle gender inequality. In 2013, she presented a TED talk titled “Laura Bates: Everyday Sexism”, that has since been viewed over 1.5 million times!

Her keynote talks range from workplace sexual harassment to women in tech, school sexism to online abuse. Her talking career has taken her around the world, speaking to audiences in countries including Mexico and the Cayman Islands. She is spoken at Wembley stadium, presented at the House of Commons, The Sydney Opera House, the Royal Academy, and the New York Public Library.

KEYNOTE TOPICS

Everyday Sexism at School: Laura explores the reality of gender inequality across our society, and looks at the ways it manifests in young people. She tackles issues such as media sexism, gender stereotypes, and sexual consent, and examines the big question of, ‘What Is Sexual Harassment?’. Laura looks at how young people can play an important role in making a more equal future.

Workplace Equality: Laura explores the wider picture of gender inequality across the media, STEM, politics, and culture, and the scale of violence against women, before focussing on how these issues manifest themselves within the workplace. She also discusses how they can merge with other forms of prejudice such as homophobia and racism, and why people re afraid of reporting.

Male Allyship: Laura offers talks and workshops on how men can help gender inequality. She explores the ways in which stereotypes present challenges to both men and women, and deconstructs some of the misconceptions that might prevent men from helping.

Incels and Extremist Misogyny: Laura provides an overview of “the manosphere”, a little-understood form of extremism, radicalisation, and recruitment techniques, impacting vulnerable young people. She also discusses ways in which parents, teachers, and law enforcement can recognise red flags and play a positive role in supporting at-risk youngsters.

Clients include: Accenture, Eton College, EY, Google, Home Office, J.P Morgan, Lloyd’s, NatWest, NHS, Paramount, Vodafone, World Trade Organization

To check fees and availability for Laura Bates, contact Great Business Speakers on 0044 (0)1753 439289

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Laura Bates, a visionary speaker, guides you through navigating disruption with adaptability and innovation for success.

Everyday Sexism Project
Bestselling Author of Fiction and Non-Fiction
Vice President of the Hay Literary Festival
Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine, and The Sunday Times Magazine

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Thank you so much – by far one of the most engaged audiences we’ve had and I’m not surprised – as someone has said it’s just such a beautifully simple idea it’s delightful to see the fires it’s lit. Really well done.
Elaine Arthur, Account Manager, Ogilvy

Many thanks for your fantastic talk at GSS. For many people, yours was the highlight of the conference.
Max Harris, Global Scholars Symposium, Oxford University

I have never known such a response to a speaker before. So many staff and pupils have spoken to or emailed me already, saying they think you should come back next year – or next week actually! – as you were the most amazing speaker we’ve ever had and your topic and project are so hugely relevant. I felt as though my eyes had been opened.
Cathy Scott-Burt, Head of Enrichment, Bablake School

On behalf of the partners of Taylor Wessing LLP I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Laura for presenting at our offices last week. Her presentation was pitched at just the right level and was considered by us all to be a huge success – hard hitting but thoughtful and insightful at the same time. We’ve had some great feedback from many of the attendees and that is exactly what we were hoping to achieve.
Tandeep Minhas, Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP

Your visit last time was truly inspirational for all. It was a wonderful highlight of the year… a truly fabulous session. If I may say so, there was no finer guest speaker in my nineteen years here.
Simon Etheridge, Bishop’s Stortford High School

Genuinely had a bit of a cry listening to Laura. Don’t know if it’s just feeling validated and that my own experience isn’t me ‘being dramatic’. But thank you. Incredibly stark and scary but I think that having a talk like this really had a massive impact.
Anonymous attendee, O2 talk

What an inspirational talk for us! Thank you so much for delivering such an empowering and encouraging message with such clarity, confidence and intelligence. Girls and staff were all raving about it afterwards.
Lucy Elphinstone, Headmistress, Francis Holland School

One of the most thorough, well-researched and explained talks I have ever attended. Thank you for what you have done and continue to do. I will take this forward at my organisation. Expect a flood of book orders.
Attendee from workshop event with UK police, Home Office and counter-terror staff

Your talk was fantastically engaging and debunked so many of the myths we hear and even hold subconsciously as women. My colleagues were still talking about your talk at lunchtime – people left the room very invigorated and spurred to action.
Bethan Chatters, CFO Allen & Overy LLP

I have received many positive comments from staff and boys alike about the day and I would like to thank you once again for the tremendous work that you did for us.
Dr Bob Stephenson, Deputy Headmaster, Eton College

Laura was an absolutely brilliant speaker — her presentation was accessible, powerful, impeccably researched and evidenced and engaging. It was a masterclass and did a tremendous amount to elevate our event and the dialogues that took place during it.
Organiser of YoungPOWER conference for students from secondary schools across London

Thank you so much for today, it was an amazing message for our school community to hear. Thanks for planning and delivering it so well. The content is so important and for all of us who have been subject to sexism in all its forms. You pitched it perfectly and your mastery when it came to adapting it for the older ones was impressive. The staff room was buzzing and so were our kids.
Mrs Becky Wilcox, Head of PSHEE and Careers, Westbourne School