Scarcely a week passes without a privately educated young woman with a successful career in journalism publishing a book about how ‘oppressed’ women are. Names that spring to mind are Laurie Penny (Brighton College), Zoe Williams (Godolphin and Latymer), Laura Bates (King’s College), Afua Hirsch (Wimbledon High School) and Grace Blakeley (Lord Wandsworth College).
Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking that in order to qualify as an ‘intersectional feminist’ and present yourself as a victim of ‘systemic inequality’ you need to be a member of the ruling class. One of the distinguishing characteristics of ‘social justice’ activists is that they tend to be rich, high-achieving young women who have been to elite universities, which is why they’re such ripe targets for satire. In my mind’s eye, I can picture an alternative ending to Spartacus in which each of these women leaps up from her yoga mat and proclaims, ‘I am Titania McGrath.’
A case in point is Caroline Criado Perez, who in addition to going to Oundle is the daughter of a former CEO of Safeway. She shot to fame in 2012 when she launched a campaign to get a broader cross-section of people interviewed on current affairs programmes. ‘If public policy is going to be so responsive to the media, let’s make the media truly representative of the public,’ she argued — which meant fewer men, obviously, not fewer women who’d been to public school. After that, she focused on bank notes, arguing that Winston Churchill shouldn’t be featured on the new £5 note because he is ‘just another white man’.Thanks to her campaign, Jane Austen appears on the new £10 note.
She has now published a book called Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed For Men, the thesis of which is that nearly everything in the world that’s been designed for use by both men and women, from mobile phones to public roads, is specifically tailored for men.
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