What I learned at a Feminism lecture

Last Friday my sister and I headed to the opening night of the 2016 Bradford Literature Festival. ‘How to be a feminist?’ was the title of the lecture. The guest panel included Mona Eltahawy, Lennie Gooding’s, Sunny Hundal and Ralph Darted. 

I have to say I’ve never really heard of any of these people before but they all brought different opinions on the subject and discussed feminism from different viewpoints.

I’ve always quietly believed in what feminism stands for – equality, integration and an understanding of women’s rights. Friday’s lecture honed in on the phrase ‘Equality and Liberation of Women’. It discussed women from different cultures, religions, countries and cities and how their lives are effected in different ways by feminism.  The topic of the Internet and social media was debated at length. How it gives young individuals the opportunity to discuss feminism and meet like-minded individuals who want to learn about and contribute to one of the key gender political issues of our time. The panel touched on interesting, humorous and serious topics and taught me how feminism is addressed around the world – through both speech and word. 

Publisher Lennie Gooding’s has enriched my reading list with books about feminism and others by interesting and talented females. Columnist and international speaker Mona Eltahawy spoke her mind about religious feminist issues from around the globe. I loved how both men and women could easily analyze a subject that is sometimes hard to discuss, without fear or judgement. 

The lecture ended with audience questions, an interesting one was ‘does class and social background have an influence on your understanding of feminism?’ I often agree that different social classes are more likely to understand the meaning of feminism, due to educational advantages. However I do think that this doesn’t mean you can’t learn about feminism independently - by using sources such as the Internet, books and social media you can gain an understanding of this subject and contribute however you like no matter what social background.

Friday night’s lecture was interesting and insightful and left me wanting to learn more about a very modern and powerful topic.