Is This Enough? Harriet Johnson & Mary Ann Sieghart
Women are equal to men. Right? In the home, in the workplace, in the courts of law. Right?
Wrong.
Two women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales alone. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, instances of domestic abuse increased by 33%. Every year, 1.6 million women are victims of domestic violence. The conviction rates are pitifully low, as they are for rape and sexual assault.
In the workplace, there are still only six female CEOs of Britain’s hundred biggest listed companies. Women are much more likely to have their expertise challenged, to be interrupted or talked over and to have other people take credit for their ideas. Women also, still, couch their comments and hesitate to intervene in meetings.
Is this equality?!
When will this change? How?
Join our panel of inspiring, campaigning women who want to help other women be heard: Harriet Johnson is one of the UK’s most respected barristers, and an advocate for women who work in the UK legal system and go through the courts. Mary Ann Sieghart is a journalist and former Assistant Editor at the Times, and was the 2022 Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Chaired by Emma Boniwell
About the speakers:
Harriet Johnson is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in human rights and criminal law, and a fierce advocate of women’s rights. She is a founder member of Women in Criminal Law, Joint Chair of Trustees of the charity Women in Prison and in 2016 she founded #DoughtyStWomen events, an annual series of conferences to consider what more the law can do for women.
Mary Ann Sieghart spent 20 years as Assistant Editor and columnist at The Times and won a large following for her columns on politics, economics, feminism, parenthood and life in general. She has presented many programmes on BBC Radio 4, such as Start the Week, Profile, Analysis and One to One. She chaired the revival of The Brains Trust on BBC2 and recently spent a year as a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She has also chaired the Social Market Foundation think tank, sits on numerous boards, and is currently a Visiting Professor at King’s College London.
