15 h. ago Yes, women’s rights are under threat around the world. But we’ve found hope in unlikely places | Rahila Gupta

From El Salvador to Russia, Iceland and Syria, women are pushing back against the rise of regressive forces. Let’s support their fightRahila Gupta is an anti-racist feminist activist and the co-author, with Beatrix Campbell, of Planet Patriarchy In 2025, the world that had been opened up by women has often seemed to be closing in. The forces behind the rollback of abortion rights in Donald Trump’s US are attempting to do the same in the UK. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has doubled down on its attacks on women and girls. Sexual violence is commonplace in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Mexico, even the president is not safe from sexual assault. A perverse rewilding appears to be taking place.You’d be forgiven for thinking that around the world, women’s rights are being concreted over. But in researching our book, Planet Patriarchy, Beatrix Campbell and I found women’s resistance erupting like green shoots through the cracks. In El Salvador, women can receive sentenc...

Events

43 h. ago Louise Thompson's fiancé Ryan Libbey says he went into 'survival mode' after her 'traumatic' birth before a conversation with his dad made him realise he needed help

Influencer Louise, 35, who now campaigns for women's health and maternity rights, nearly died giving birth to her and Ryan's son Leo in 2021.

Events

4 d. ago Inside Georgia Harrison and partner Jack Stacey's life with baby Sahara in stunning unseen snaps

Reality star-turned-women's rights campaigner Georgia Harrison opens up exclusively with her partner Jack Stacey about life with baby girl Sahara - and their plans for 2026

Politics

4 d. ago Georgia Harrison and partner Jack Stacey present daughter Sahara in gorgeous unseen snaps

EXCLUSIVE: Reality star-turned-women's rights campaigner Georgia Harrison opens up exclusively with her partner Jack Stacey about life with baby girl Sahara - and their plans for 2026

Politics

4 d. ago Doctor settles debate whether 'man flu' is real and if men are right or women are

The health expert has explained whether there is a influenza virus which only infects men

Science

5 d. ago ‘Weapons of mass construction’: the US ‘craftivists’ using yarn to fight back against Trump

Fiber artists across the US are using their craft to protest against everything from national guard deployments to rollbacks on abortion rightsIn early October, Tracy Wright invited a group of other women in her social circle – all fellow knitters – to gather outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in their home town of Portland, Oregon. They were “armed with their weapons of mass construction”.Donald Trump had just ordered national guard troops deployed to the city, which he called “war ravaged” in order to protect ICE facilities he said were “under siege” by anti-fascists “and other domestic terrorists”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago JK Rowling condemns Labour for blocking new trans guidance protecting women's rights to female

JK Rowling hit out at the Government for claiming it wants to 'stamp out misogyny' after Bridget Phillipson blocked the publication of new EHRC guidance on women-only spaces.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Pretty birds and silly moos’: the women behind the Sex Discrimination Act

In the 50 years since equal rights for women were enshrined in UK law, the campaigners have been reduced to caricatures, or forgotten. But their struggle is worth rememberingCelia Brayfield was at her desk in the Femail section of the Daily Mail’s Fleet Street office when an editor called her over. It was July and Wimbledon had started. “He said: ‘We want you to go down and get into the women’s changing rooms and report on lesbian behaviour.’ One didn’t normally swear at that time but I declined. That was the attitude then,” she told me.From the late 1960s until the early 70s, Brayfield was one of a small group of female journalists working on women’s pages in newspapers. “We were dealing with everyday sexism on an unbelievable scale,” she said. “You learned to wear trousers or take the lift because if you took the stairs someone would try to look up your skirt. But then you couldn’t go to a lot of press conference venues in trousers. In the Savoy, for example, women in trousers wer...

Events

2 w. ago Brigitte Macron faces lawsuit after being filmed using sexist slur at Paris theatre

More than 300 women file complaint after video shows French first lady calling feminist protesters ‘sales connes’Brigitte Macron is facing a legal complaint from several organisations, including women’s rights groups, after she was filmed saying feminist protesters at a theatre show in Paris were “stupid bitches”.More than 300 women – specifically 343, a historically symbolic number in French feminism – this week filed the complaint against the French first lady for public insult. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Five key moments in the assault on the rights of women and girls in 2025

Since Trump’s second term began in January, global healthcare, especially for sexual and reproductive health, has been under constant attackThis time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for the chaos that would be unleashed in January. The volume and speed of executive orders coming out of the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by the USAID freeze. But that was just the beginning.The US administration has been the key driver, supported by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago MSP Ash Regan demands Scots Government enforces law on women’s rights to single

Ash Regan’s comments come following a partial win by nurse Sandie Peggie, who was suspended by NHS Fife after complaining about having to share a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton.

Politics

2 w. ago From NHS nurse to feminist icon: Why Sandie Peggie stands for the women of Scotland

So-called progressive elites made a big mistake when they embarked on their ill-fated crusade to rob women of their rights

Events

3 w. ago Girls and women 'are being targeted by sexual predators in mixed changing rooms'

Eighty sexual assaults, 16 rapes and 65 incidents of voyeurism happened across leisure centres in England and Wales in 2023, according to police data obtained by the Women's Rights Network.

Events

3 w. ago In this age of authoritarians, online abuse of women is soaring – and it’s leading to ‘real

Our UN report reveals the link between the online misogyny and offline crimes that are hounding women out of public lifeNetworked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists.The objectives are clear: to help justify the rollback of gender equality and women’s reproductive rights; to chill women’s freedom of expression and their participation in democratic deliberation; to discredit truth-tellers; and to pave the way for the consolidation of authoritarian power.Dr Julie Posetti is the director of the Information Integrity Initiative at TheNerve, a digital forensics lab founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa. She is also a professor of journalism and chair of the Centre for ...

Events

3 w. ago UN agency reports rise in violence against women journalists and activists linked to online abuse

UN Women partners has published a new study that found more than two-thirds of women journalists, rights defenders and activists have reported violence online

Events

3 w. ago 'Edgy girl pays hot men and women for romps – she claims it's her right'

JUST JANE: Today our agony aunt Jane O'Gorman is dealing with a new issue from a Daily Star reader who is worried his successful girl is getting carried away with herself

Politics

3 w. ago Jeffrey Epstein’s most powerful ally was silence | Gretchen Carlson and Julie Roginsky

When abuse occurs, the first instinct is too often containment. We know this pattern because we have seen it ourselvesFor years, Jeffrey Epstein conjured a kind of grotesque fascination: the private island, the powerful friends, the whispered allegations. But focusing on the lurid details of his life and eventual death obscures the far more unsettling truth his case lays bare. Epstein’s story is not really about one man’s depravity. It is about a system – legal, cultural, and institutional – engineered to protect the powerful through silence. His crimes thrived not because they were hidden, but because the people who knew were coerced, encouraged, or more than willing to shut up.Silence was not incidental to Epstein’s success. It was central to it. And in this, he was hardly unique.Gretchen Carlson is a journalist, bestselling author and internationally recognized advocate for women’s rights. Julie Roginsky is a champion of women’s rights and political consultant. Carlson and Rogins...

Politics

3 w. ago Health boards have ‘failed to take action’ to protect women from rape and sexual assault in hospitals

Women’s Rights Network Scotland said health boards have ‘failed to take action’ to protect women from rape and sexual assault in hospitals

Events

3 w. ago Want to be hotter? Try this one weird Republican trick | Arwa Mahdawi

The right has found a new pitch for young women: conservatives are better-lookingForget expensive moisturizers or designer clothes. Ladies, if you want a quick and easy glow-up, you may want to try Republicanism. This one weird trick of voting against your own reproductive rights will instantly make you 10 times hotter.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Labour has completely abandoned women’s rights, former EHRC chief claims

Kishwer Falkner said Labour was traditionally the ‘party of feminism’ but that the current generation of Labour MPs has ‘lost it’

Politics