Dominic Raab is not a feminist. That is the confession the Tory leadership hopeful makes in an interview in this week’s Spectator. Screams, gasps and 240 character rants have swept the internet since. Who in their right mind would reject the notion of treating men and women equally?
Of course, Raab didn’t do that. He describes himself as “someone who is passionate about equality and wants a fairer society.” What Raab rejects is the term itself: feminism. And Raab is not alone. In fact, his position represents the vast majority of women in the UK.
Most women don’t identify as feminists. Young women, older women, and especially women in lower income brackets actively reject the term. In a study carried out by the Fawcett Society last year, only 18 per cent of women aged 18-25 identified as feminist; and support went down from there. Just 9.2 per cent of women surveyed overall opted for the label.
In some rather strange news this festive season, it transpires that the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) has banned John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men from being studied at GCSE level in Wales. The news comes amid concerns about the use of racist language in the novel, with the move to come into force from
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