Johnian Laura Bates discusses everyday sexism

Laura Bates, who founded the Everyday Sexism Project to draw attention to the sexism still routinely experienced by women, gave a powerful presentation on the origins and impact of the initiative at the latest Johnian Women's Networking Event. Her talk is available now to stream below.

The Project, which was set up to catalogue instances of sexism experienced by women on a day-to-day basis, has become a global phenomenon, carrying thousands of stories from women around the world, and with some 124,000 people following its Twitter feed.

Laura, who graduated from St John's in 2007, described how the project sprang from personal experiences of harassment while she was living in London. Speaking to friends and colleagues, she realised that this was not only a common issue for women, but one which they were expected to put up with on grounds of presumed equality.

The website is committed to enabling women to discuss sexism as an ongoing problem both in the UK and further afield. "I realised that before we could start dealing with the problem, people needed to realise what was going on, and how bad it still was," she said. "I realised not just how much was happening, but how much individual women were dealing with; the breadth of the problem, the different ways in which it manifested itself, and how much more serious it was than many people would ever have suspected."

The site had a huge impact, gathering contributions from all over the world, ranging from girls of primary school age through to elderly women. Many of the shocking stories which emerged are described in the talk.

Almost from the start, Laura herself also became the subject not just of abuse online, but of shocking death threats, illustrating the depth of the problem. At the same time, the site also began to gather stories of men who had attempted but failed to break out of archaic social models, for instance by trying to get paternity leave from work.

After the Project had been running for some time, it began to garner stories from women who had stood up to sexism because of the initiative. The success also led to a project with schools and universities, and an appeal to the British Transport Police who undertook to start a public awareness campaign about sexual offences, while also retraining 2,000 of their officers to react better to supposedly "minor" issues.

Ultimately, Laura argues that overcoming sexism in society will demand not just legislation to prevent it – much of which already exists – but a cultural shift. She also believes that the Everyday Sexism Project has shown that such change is possible, when people are empowered to become part of it.

The talk was attended by more than 100 alumni of St John's. Further information about alumni events can be found here. The Everyday Sexism Project website can be found here.