Helena Horton

Aspiring Journalist- writes for York Vision, The F Word, The Yorker, Huffington Post and The Independent.

We aren't going to take this lying down- we are going to campaign and raise awareness until our Union ratifies us. I am here for at least two more years, and by the time I leave, our University will have a ratified FemSoc. I hope that our Union deigns to give us a good answer why they have decided not to support feminism on campus soon, and I hope that they reconsider our plea.

Louise Pennington

Feminist Writer

The older I get, the more I believe that 'equality' is nothing more than a smokescreen to prevent the true liberation of women. Equality before the law means nothing when violence is endemic; when women are most likely to live in poverty; when no one bothers to actually enforce the existing equality legislation.

Katherine Baldwin

Independent journalist, writer, blogger

I've called myself many things in public - a binge eater, an addict, a perfectionist, a workaholic, to name but a few - but I've never called myself a feminist. It's only now that I'm starting to wonder why.

Karen Ruimy

Singer, author and co-founder of the global gender equality foundation, the GREAT Initiative

Feminism means that gender equality should become the norm. It is a work of changing the mentalities now and here, the wrong habits of inequality in our world. I was born in Casablanca in Morocco and grew up in Paris; I was exposed to gender inequality early on in my life, and have always striven to fight openly against it.

Amel Guettatfi

Journalist currently pursuing a degree in Journalism and Media at Coventry University

While a large proportion of women in Islam-dominated regions of the world are indeed restricted and even oppressed, their issues are indicative of a larger cultural paradigm that is masked under the veil of Islam. They are not caused by the religion itself, rather by biased patriarchal interpretations.

Laura Ashton

Writer, mother and campaigner

If breasts are seen as fundamentally sexual then the idea of putting one in a baby's mouth can be shocking. If breasts are understood as the producer of nourishment and comfort to babies then the sight of a woman breastfeeding in public may become more socially acceptable.

Christina Sweeney-Baird

Cambridge Law student, Women's Officer of the Cambridge Union Society, former News Editor of The Cambridge Tab and Vice-President of the Cambridge University Law Society

The fact is that there is a dearth of women, at all levels of society, willing to go ahead and define themselves as feminists. Why is feminism seen by many as, at best, unnecessary, and at worst, terrifying? At its core feminism is simply the belief that all women should be treated equally. No controversy there for a rational human being. So where is the problem?

Natalie Gyte

Head of Communications at Women’s Resource Centre, the national umbrella body for women’s charities

David Cameron remarked that Thatcher had "smashed through the glass ceiling" - she did, but not for women, simply for herself. She did not open the door for other women behind her; rather, she smashed the glass and replaced it with barbed wire fencing. She reinforced a system that does not allow for female leadership unless it acquiesces to patriarchal modes.

Helen Grant

Minister for Justice, Victims’ and the Courts and Minister for Women and Equalities

In England and Wales one in four women will be the victim of domestic abuse over the course of their lifetime, and in the last year around 400,000 women were sexually assaulted and 60,000 raped. Behind each of those horrifying statistics is a woman or child whose life has been ruined.

Michele Howarth Rashman

Artist

We all have pet causes. Mine include Amnesty International, Yorkshire Cat Rescue and re-writing the artist Jann Haworth back into art history.

Nadia Henderson

English with Creative Writing graduate. Loves books, cats and coffee, but who doesn't?

Femen might intend to liberate the women of Islam, but their over-simplification of Muslim women's experiences not only alienates this group, it offends them.

June Sun

Politics student, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University

On a recent train journey, I found myself, yet again, locked into debate with a fellow politics student. We argued about gender, equal pay, and affirmative action. We both wanted to win, we are both stubborn little mules, and we were both drunk.

Rakhi Kumar

Writer, Producer and Director at Akasha Associates and Founder & Editor in Chief of The Modern Girls Guide to Spirituality

I'm writing because I think it's time to stop suggesting to very young girls that ultimate feminine success - in the music industry or anywhere else - comes with the need, or the expectation for them to undress.

Melissa Steel

Blogger for Grads.co.uk & Myetutor.tv, Journalist and Graduate-To-Be

It is hard to be a woman in the Western world and not feel ashamed of your appearance. In the press, starlets in bikinis are picked apart more comprehensively than if an autopsy was being performed on them. Scrutiny naturally turns toward your own, inevitably inferior, body.

Karen Ruimy

Singer, author and co-founder of the global gender equality foundation, the GREAT Initiative

I moved into the banking industry as soon as I graduated - it seemed the obvious thing to do when you are good with figures and have a head for business. But then I decided to give it all up on the search for something else, something bigger. I needed to answer all those questions that had been making their presence felt in my life and in my head for some time.

Ali Schofield

Freelance journalist

Women are beautiful. This we know, because a series of Dove ad campaigns and TV programmes hosted by Gok Wan celebrating so called 'real women' have told us so.