Jane Haile

Mantelgate. It all began at the British Museum. The two-time Booker prize winner, reflecting on her favourite historical period…the time of Henry VIII and Cromwell… began a very amusing riff on royal wombs and vaginas; a shocking juxtaposition of noun and adjective which may have led Big Dave to charge to the defence of ‘Princess’ […]

Empress. And the “ Empress Dowager Cixi : the Concubine Who Launched Modern China” seems likely to garner plaudits not only from students of China but from anyone interested in world affairs and China’s role therein. Indeed the reader is frequently prompted to compare and contrast the relations between China and the West, as well

Sex Disaggregated. Those of us working in gender and international development can remember the good old days…. which are still with us…. when governments and development agencies…..could pat themselves on the back for producing data disaggregated by sex……..to show how many people in Country X in Sector Y were male and how many female. Curiously

Iraq. Fatma Khafagy is women’s rights activist in the Arab region. She worked with the United Nations on gender issues for 15 years. She established and presided over the first Ombudsperson office on gender equality in Egypt. For the past four years she has been assisting the UN agencies in developing gender equality strategies in

Hiding. In a week when Osama bin Laden is found ‘hiding’ next door to a Pakistani military academy & a website is dedicated to the rear view of Pippa the royal bridesmaid…. the domestic goddess in her burkini on Bondi beach perfectly captures the zeitgeist.   So what is Nigella actually saying to us… is

Having it All !. Does the phrase ‘Having It All!’ now deserve to be purged from public discourse – along with other speech crimes such as ‘an emotional roller coaster’, and ‘at the end of the day’? And was such a hubristic expression ever the rallying call for feminism as seems to be implied by

Cross Dressed. As Dame Edna herself might say – a curious noise on cross-dressing has been emitted by a great seat of learning. The gist of the message which was wrapped in terminological confusion… was that Oxford University, following a motion put forward by the university’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Society which was

Beige. So much has already been written about E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey & its sequels that you (even you, women) may never have to read it, even on your Kindle. In line with its usual customer-care gendercentric is providing a review of the reviews and a few pointers as to how to talk

Effortlessly maintaining its status as a cool country, Nepal has hosted the first LGBT games in South Asia… and perhaps globally? 

Feminist, but… The Mumsnet Poll on Feminism scorned by many as being unscientific and unrepresentative….suggested inter alia that ‘feminism’ has an image problem. This perhaps unsurprising insight has nonetheless renewed the debate on what is modern feminism about. The Mumsnet Poll also revealed that only one in seven among those 1,300 polled self-identified as a