Feminism in London

Feminism in London 2010 Logo Inspiring feminist activism

About 1200 women and men came along

Held in Friends Meeting House, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ10 on Saturday, 23 October 2010, Feminism in London 2010 was the third large scale conference organised by the London Feminist Network.

Audience at Feminism in London 2010 A space to recover workshop
Those who came included seasoned campaigners and those new to feminism. The day featured many of the feminist activist groups that are campaigning in and around London and there were talks, workshops and the chance to network.

9:00 Registration

Stalls at Feminism in London 2010
The doors opened at 9am and people who came early could browse the stalls and the women’s history exhibition or attend the “speed feministing” networking session. The idea for this came out of feedback from last year – women who came alone in particular wanted opportunities to connect with others.

“[I liked the] stimulating and inspiring speakers – I got a lot of ideas to act on after the event – and the social lubrication – for example, the pre-event speed feministing made it much easier to interact.”

10:00 Opening speakers

Helena Kennedy Ceri Goddard Virginia Heath
The opening panel was themed around ‘Women in Public Life’ and explored women’s representation in, and experiences of, the public sphere. It looked at perceptions of women in the media and the culture at large and how this differs from the reality of women’s lives.

Ceri Goddard (chair)
Chitra Nagarajan (a brief welcome from the organising committee)
Helena Kennedy
Virginia Heath
Rahila Gupta
Lindsey Hills

More than 94% of the 240 people who rated this session in their feedback, said that it was excellent or good.

“I was really impressed by how high quality the speakers were. It really felt like we were hearing from the experts.”

11:45 Morning workshop session

Audience in the main hall A space to recover workshop Feminist Parenting workshop
During the morning workshop session, there was a panel on reproductive health in the main hall and a number of workshops in smaller rooms. See the workshops page for detailed descriptions.

Reproductive health is a feminist issue
Violence against women as a hate crime for women only
Feminist primer
Young, old feminists: Getting to know each other
A space to recover for women of colour only
Feminist parenting: practical parenting skills
Under pressure: An interactive play for 12-18 year olds

1:15 Lunch

The Feminism in London stall Some of the M&S protestors Time out at Feminism in London
During the lunch break there was an opportunity to network and browse the stalls. About 50 people headed off to Marks & Spencers on Oxford Street to protest about M&S leasing one of their Bristol building to Hooters.

“The stalls were good – a good chance to meet people from different organisations.”

“[My favourite part of the day was] getting to go and do direct action against M&S at lunchtime with the Boycott M&S campaign.”

2:15 Afternoon workshop session

Feminism in London 2010 Workshop at Feminism in London 2010
The afternoon workshop session followed the same pattern as the morning one, with a panel on the global women’s movement in the main hall and workshops in breakout rooms around the building.

Reports from the global women’s movement
“It’s easy out here for a pimp” anti-porn slide show
Feminist parenting: Influencing misogynist society
Feminist self defence training for women only
Exploring our internalised prejudice for women only
Confronting privilege, contributing to change, for men only
Dealing with pressure: A creative workshop for 12-18 olds

4:00 Closing speakers

Natasha Walter
Jay Bernard
Anna Fisher (thanks from the organising committee)
Finn Mackay

During this session, we had a collection to help fund the delegation of British women to the Democratic Republic of Congo as part the Third International Action of the World March of Women. Marie-Claire Faray-Kele spoke about this in the Reports from the Global Women’s Movement panel. It was a global action in support and solidarity of the women there and they participated in a march of over 30,000 women. This delegation was organised by Million Women Rise and WILPF. The collection raised £1,061.80.

More than 97% of the 164 people who rated this session in their feedback, said that it was excellent or good.

5:30 Evening event (aka The After Party) starts

The Feminism in London 2010 After Party
The evening event was held in The 52 Club in Gower Street, which was a short walk from the conference venue. There was a large lounge area with a bar for people to sit and chat, workshop room and a function room, which had a fun and interactive programme going on until late. Our aim was to make it easy for everyone, including those who come alone, to meet others, network and get involved.

Catherine Brogan, performance poet, hosted the evening.
Catherine Redfern and Dr. Kristin Aune, authors of Reclaiming the F-Word, led an interactive discussion.
Sabrina Mahfouz – poet, performed at this year’s Glastonbury, one of the sharpest performers and writers in London today.
Kess Tamblyn – only 17 and has already won a poetry award from Oxford University, she’s coming all the way from Chester to share her feminist poetry.
Sophia Blackwell – a published poet with the panache for performance, Catherine and Sophia shared their joint pieces from their Edinburgh Fringe show.
Poeticat - a band with four essential elements all integral to a sound that makes them unique and refreshing.
Ceilidh Dancing by the SOAS Ceilidh society. This is traditional Scots/Irish dancing. If you didn’t know the steps you didn’t have to worry because they had a caller to talk you through.
Womansong ran a singing workshop.
Jenny Edbrooke led an interactive body painting workshop with paints like red wine and cranberry juice.
Nimko Ali spoke about the work of Daughters of Eve, a support organisation for women who have experienced female genital mutilation (FGM).

Children

Feminism in London 2010 was a child-friendly event, with a creche run by the London Pro-Feminist Men’s Group and workshops for 7-11 year olds and 12-18 year olds.

“The creche was amazing.”

“My daughter had a fantastic time [in the 7-11 year olds' activity room], made a good friend, swapped email address and they plan a meet up at the RTN night in November… [The workshops provided] affirmation of the values I am trying to impart and are essential to my parenting and her development.”

“[My daughter] had a great time and asked if we can go again next year, I said yes of course. The day certainly provoked discussion between us and continues to do so. I would definitely recommend the FIL conference and the childcare facilities to a friend; in fact, I’ve already done so.”

Watch the videos

The programme in the main hall was live streamed and recorded. You can watch the recordings at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/feminism-in-london-live

Fundraising and other events

In order to keep the event affordable to all and to pay for speech to text and signers and for the creche and children’s workshops, we held a variety of fundraising events during the year. These included a Midsummer Feminist Party, a series of evening and weekend walks, a series of musical evenings, a pub quiz, a postcard art auction and a pre-release screening of Made in Dagenham.

Postcard art auction

We held a postcard art auction on Monday 4 October 2010 as a fundraiser for Feminism in London 2010. The collection was organised and curated by Sarah Maple and the venue was the Aubin Gallery. It was a one-night only exhibition and auction of original postcard sized-artworks on the theme of “Feminism”. The postcards were designed by artists, activists, comedians, writers and feminists of all stripes:

Riz Ahmed	Viv Albertine (the Slits)	Kat Banyard	Bidisha
Jo Brand	Rachel Brown	Zoe Buckman	Ty Bulmer
Chila Kumari Burman	Luke Drozd	Jenny Edbrooke	Miriam Elia
The Girls	Jeremy Hardy	Jo Harrison	Nathan James
Hayden Kays	Gerald Laing	Sarah Lederman	Louise Lynn
Bob London	Sabrina Mahfouz	Sarah Maple	Marina and the Diamonds
Bethany Murray	Kate Nash	Gemma Nelson	Julian Opie
Susie Orbach	Sean Parker	Piers Secunda	Stuart Semple
Jessica Stevenson	Joseph Valentino	Julie Verhoeven	Jenny Wright

The auctioneers were Miriam Elia and Jessica Stevenson.

“How stupid do you have to be to say, ‘No, I believe in gender inequality‘?” Lauren Laverne

Pre-release screening of Made in Dagenham

In partnership with The Barbican Centre, The Women’s Library and the TUC Library Collections, we had a pre-release screening of “Made in Dagenham” in Cinema 1 at The Barbican on Wednesday 29 September 2010. The screening was followed by a conversation with the film’s producers Christine Langan, Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, activist and writer Beatrix Campbell, and broadcaster and trade unionist Cath Elliott. Hosted by author Orna Ross.

Photography

Photographs of Feminism in London 2010 by Kirsty McCall-Thornley, Lucie Marasco, Maria Mursell, Aliya Mirza, Portia Roelofs, David Ellis and Catherine Brogan.

There are more photographs on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fil2010/.

Twitter

We are on Twitter: https://twitter.com/F_i_L.

The hash tag for the conference was #FIL10.

Feminism in London 2010