On Thursday evening, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti delivered an inspirational and thought provoking lecture on Gender Inequality in the 21st Century to an audience of 300 pupils, parents, staff and Old Edwardians. Shami began the talk with this short extract from her book, Of Women in the 21st Century: “Imagine a Martian falls to earth tonight. Our alien friend could arrive absolutely anywhere in our world, on any continent, in a rich, poor, urban or rural environment. What difference, discrimination or oppression would they notice everywhere and most of all?”
During the evening Shami presented a series of impassioned and forceful arguments emphasising that gender injustice is the greatest human rights abuse in the world.
Shami shared both her personal and professional reasons for writing her book; the sudden death of her mother in 2011 was a key factor in encouraging her to reflect on her mother’s generation as well as all those generations of women who had gone before. Was she honouring their legacy of gender injustice?
In the Q+A session at the end of the talk, which was overseen by our guest Chair, BBC West Midlands presenter Mary Rhodes, there were many challenging questions from students and parents alike. We were also delighted that Shami and Mary were both able to stay late into the evening talking to students and taking further questions.
Thank you to everyone who made the event such a success including the RPAC staff, the catering team and the Parents’ Association for sponsoring the event.
