The Feminist Lens

Join Peris Thuo and Nina Park interview the incredible Gloria Onitiri about her career, racism in the UK, and some words of wisdom and lasting hope. You would have seen Gloria at the in The Taming of the Shrew as Katherine and also as Guardiano in Women Beware Women, Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic, as one of the Fates in Hadestown at the National, Yomi in Chiaroscuro at The Bush, Nala in Disney’s The Lion King, Rachel Marron in the original cast of The Bodyguard and much more.

Gloria is also the Founder of Letter to a Black girl Podcast. Which is a podcast full of musings and roundtable discussions with the best of Black British Women.

It is so refreshing having someone like Gloria who through her podcast celebrates and empowers Black Women in the UK, and also provides a platform for Black Women to tell their story and their truth in a mainstream format. This is incredibly important as we know black women are often ignored and overlooked in society.

Hello Everyone and Welcome to the Feminist Lens podcast, brought to you by Women for Wanawake.

On today’s episode Nina Parker and Peris Thuo will be speaking to Kerry Abel, Chair of Abortion Rights UK. Which is the national member-led pro-choice campaign. Who campaign to defend and extend women’s rights and access to safe, free, legal, and local abortion. They oppose any rollback of the legisilation and restrictions to abortion access.

It’s more than 50 years since abortion was made legal in Britain and we think women’s rights should be advanced not driven back. A consistent three-quarters of people support a woman’s right to choose in Britain. They believe the law should be brought into line with public opinion – so that women can make their own reproductive decisions without the current unfair legal barriers, obstructions, and delays.

Helen Pankhurst CBE...Need we say more? Yes we shall! For the last episode of Season 1, join Nina de Ayala Parker and Peris Thuo in conversation with the incredible, kind and devoted Helen Pankhurst. 

Helen Pankhurst is a women’s rights, an international development practitioner working mainly in Ethiopia for CARE International and a Trustee of ActionAid, a Professor at MMU and the Chancellor of the University of Suffolk. Helen is the convenor of the Centenary Action Group and of GM4Women 2028 and is the granddaughter of Sylvia, great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, leaders of the British suffragette movement. To reflect on the progress since the struggle for the vote. 

Today we will be speaking to an incredible woman, she is a photographer, activist, and founder of the podcast Cheer Up Luv, Eliza Hatch. Eliza has created and supported a network of women and girls who are fighting to end sexual harassment by retelling very powerful and often emotional stories of sexual harassment on her podcast, and on her social platforms.

As we know sexual harassment is in many ways a epidemic across the world, and ever since the term was coined in America in the 70s, women have been able to report it with greater ease, but still, not enough is being done to stamp it out. Have you ever been cat called in the street, or maybe a colleague has commented on your skirt on live tv *cough* Piers Morgan *cough*? We are so excited to speak to Eliza about what we can do, what solutions there are and how optimistic she is about the future.

Today we will be speaking to two incredible guests who are here to represent and in their own right and expertise the Global ‘Gender and Covid19 Working Group’, which brings together academics from around the world, who conduct real time gender analysis to identify and document the gendered dynamics of COVID-19 and gaps in preparedness and response. Wow, this is possibly the most relevant interview and one which we are super, super excited about.

There has been a lot of misinformation and nervousness around covid’s impact on women from care, to treatment, to humanitarian intervention, to covid actually effecting our path to equality, by slowing it down, Our two experts representing this global working group will be able to help us make sense of it all. 

Anne Ngunjiri, Senior Technical Advisor for Gender Based Violence, and Violence against Children Programs, LVCT Health in Nairobi, Kenya. In the Gender-COVID working group, Anne’s role is to conduct interviews with the marginalized population of women in urban informal settlement to better understand the secondary effects COVID has had on their  lives, specifically health, social and economic wellbeing. The intention with the data generated is to disseminate to policy and decision makers to better inform their gender responsive plans at county and national level across relevant ministries, departments and agencies.

Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Clare specialises in global health security and the politics and policy of pandemic preparedness and outbreak response, through analysis of influenza, Ebola and Zika. Her work considers global health governance, role of WHO, national priorities and innovative financing for pandemic control, particularly in Latin America.

More recently she has been analysing the downstream effects of global health security policy on women, with a forthcoming Oxford University Press book offering a feminist critique of the Zika outbreak, and co-founding and co-leading the Gender&COVID project and working group. Her work features in The Lancet, British Medical Journal (BMJ), Security Dialogue, International Affairs, BMJ Global Health and Third World Quarterly. She previously worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, delivering projects relating to surveillance and transmission of infectious disease.

Find their work: 

Peris and Nina spoke to the earthmoving, world-changer, politician, film maker, festival organiser and cultural consultant, who started off her extensive career by breaking through the glass ceiling of 1960s UK tv broadcasting, as the first ever black person to report the news on UK TV, Barbara Blake Hannah.

More than 50 years later, the Press Gazette has created the Barbara Blake-Hannah Award to celebrate upcoming journalists from ethnic minority backgrounds - in the hope of inspiring others in the future.

Wow. Barbara I cannot begin to express how excited and grateful we are to talk to you and for you to give us some of your precious time and wisdom. We started Women for Wanawake and this podcast The Feminist Lens, to inspire and empower, and to educate, break down barriers and have conversations that will change the world.

Buy Barbara Blake Hannah's Books: 

This episode is split into two parts. It is a bit different to our usual in that we are speaking to Men. We believe that to realise and achieve full Gender equality women must engage with and work with men.

We believe that men can indeed be feminists, and that right now more than ever before we need more men championing women’s rights. We simply cannot leave men out of the conversation if we are to achieve gender equality. On that note, we are glad to have two male guests who are progressive, represent hope and see Women as equals. In addition to being forces in their fields and contributing to making society a better place from Policy, sustainable living and finding real, tangible solutions to issues facing the world today.

This episode is split into two parts. It is a bit different to our usual in that we are speaking to Men. We believe that to realise and achieve full Gender equality women must engage with and work with men.

We believe that men can indeed be feminists, and that right now more than ever before we need more men championing women’s rights. We simply cannot leave men out of the conversation if we are to achieve gender equality. On that note, we are glad to have two male guests who are progressive, represent hope and see Women as equals. In addition to being forces in their fields and contributing to making society a better place from Policy, sustainable living and finding real, tangible solutions to issues facing the world today. 

Let's Change the Narrative through Journalism! Join Peris, Nina and Nicola Gill a journalist, copywriter, editor, content consultant, and Mum. Who began her career working with local newspapers, then moved to Fleet Street to senior features writer at Cosmopolitan - Nicola's career spans exciting and changing times in journalism.  

Are you a journalist? Do you want to be one - we hope you feel enriched and inspired by this episode to start or simply understand how journalism has changed throughout the decades. 

Have you ever thought how Brexit will impact you? Well Nina and Peris chatted to podcaster and activist Naomi Smith CEO of Civil Society Campaign Best for Britain, and Professor Roberta Guerrina, expert on EU & UK gender relations at Bristol University, Gender Research Centre.  

We chatted about Brexit's impact on women, and the intersections of race, language and culture. Both Naomi and Roberta have been campaigning and researching Brexit's impact on the UK since 2016. 

A life devoted to fighting for women's rights and racial equality in the UK, Dawn Butler MP gave us all sorts of feels! We hope you enjoy the chat as much as we did, and feel inspired. 

Dawn Butler is a women's rights advocate, and member of parliament for Brent Central, plus she is the first elected Black female government minister in the UK and she was recently featured in Vogue's top 25 women shaping 2020

Find Dawn on social media:

Join Peris and Nina in a whirl wind conversation with lawyer, activist, and Marie Claire 2020 Future Shaper Deeba Syed. From Rights of Women Sexual Harassment helpline, to Raising awareness around Domestic Abuse during lockdown, to Michaela Cole’s I May Destroy you, Cardi B and Meghan the Stallion’s WAP, Black Lives Matter and Why Labour still hasn’t had a Women Leader – we chatted to Deeba about A LOT and we would’ve spoken to her all day, all week if we could! I hope this conversation gives you some good ideas, and spurs you on.

Deeba’s wealth of knowledge and experience in fighting for women's rights is systemic and personal, she is a role model for many women and we wanted to platform her knowledge and inspire more young women to fight for what they believe is right.

Deebas work:

Join Peris and Nina in conversation with Murphy Gabriella Hopkins-Hubbard from Homeless Link and Phil Kerry CEO of New Horizon Youth Centre. 

Homelessness is on the rise in the UK and we could all do more to help those who are homeless and contribute to ending homelessness. Please follow and Support Phil & Murphy's work.

Join Peris and Nina's first LIVE podcast where they'll be joined by a powerhouse of women (and some men) discussing the biggest issues and barriers facing women's equality today. This podcast has been split into 2 parts because it is THAT good and also, a lot. So take a break, have a tea or a G&T and listen to 1&2 woohoo. 

We want to hear from you and if you feel there is an issue we have missed, message us and we'll cover it with you!

Join Peris and Nina's first LIVE podcast where they'll be joined by a powerhouse of women (and some men) discussing the biggest issues and barriers facing women's equality today. This podcast has been split into 2 parts because it is THAT good and also, a lot. So take a break, have a tea or a G&T and meet them over on part 2. 

We want to hear from you and if you feel there is an issue we have missed, message us and we'll cover it with you! 

Nina de Ayala Parker and Peris Thuo are super excited to launch their first introductory podcast episode, where they will be warming you up for a powerhouse of incredible feminist guests and discussing the current issues of the week through a Feminist Lens. 

Peris and Nina are co-founders of the Women's Rights Organisation 'Women For Wanawake'.

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