Category: Headship

Dame Joan Bakewell speaks out: teen magazines sexualise girls

Dame Joan Bakewell, the journalist and television presenter, who helped lead the sexual revolution of the Sixties, and who shocked the nation in 2001 when she presented the BBC TV series Taboo, spoke out earlier this week at the Bath Literature Festival about the effect that teenage magazines are having on young people – and …

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Miss-Representation – how we portray women in the media, and what we can do about it

One of the sessions at the UK Girls’ Schools Association Conference in Bristol in November, which I hosted as GSA President, was an uplifting interactive conversation with colleagues from the States. It immediately preceded the arrival of Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools, who was delayed; the positive upshot was that we were able …

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The dangers of pole-dancing …

I am perplexed by the apparent craze for pole-dancing. It may not in fact be a craze, but we certainly seem to be hearing more about it these days. Marketed as ‘pole fitness’, its proponents are quick to stress the physical benefits of the classes, as well as the fact that they are ‘fun’. Quite …

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Edinburgh Fringe: not a supermodel in sight. A celebration of normal people.

On Tuesday I had a conversation with a journalist ahead of the A Level results which come out next week, and we ended up talking about the sexualised imagery of girls and women in our society, which is a subject that I feel very strongly about, and which I have spoken out about several times …

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