Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: Jessica Searle, Merton Gender Equality rep Jessica Searle is a 2nd year Mertonian studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. She was voted Gender Equality Representative by the JCR, a role made especially interesting by Merton celebrating 40 years since women were introduced into the college. Speaking to Jessica about what her role includes and […]
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On 23rd January, Angola adopted a new penal code, its first since its independence from Portugal. The former penal code was in effect from 1886 and had not undergone reforms since 1975. In doing so, it removed an article that prescribed a jail sentence of six months to three years for “vices against nature”, an […]
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Image Description: four female students from Lady Margaret Hall. Last year, the Joanna Randall MacIver junior research fellowship, which was established in the 1930s exclusively for women specialising in the humanities, was opened up to all genders. This decision was made by the senior committee of the university – the Oxford Council – in response […]
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Image Credit: Flicker Guo-Sheng Liu was formerly co-chair of the SU LGBTQ+ Campaign, BME Representative of the LGBTQ+ Society, LGBTQ+ Representative at Lincoln College, committee member of the SU Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality and It Happens Here campaign. Racism operates beyond the individual. Racism is a system of beliefs, power, and privileges. Racism […]
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We are two undergraduate students studying at Hertford College, Oxford, both heavily involved in the Widening Participation sphere within and outside of the University. With one of us having been educated at a state comprehensive and the other coming from a BAME background, we were struck by the results of the Undergraduate Admissions Report and […]
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In 1865, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson made history as the first women to qualify as a physician and surgeon. Since then, considerable gender equality advancements have been made for workers of the NHS. In 1874, the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors was founded. Just two years later, a law was passed […]
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Bahá’í is what we might consider to be a ‘new religious movement’, because it has only come about within the last 150 years. It considers its recent emergence to be one more step on humanity’s advancement towards maturity, as the Bahá’ís believe that all religions brought about great leaps in human progress and understanding. Bahá’í […]
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October 2017 was a month that certainly took the world by storm. It was a month in which a popular social media tag revealed the full magnitude of a scandal that shook society to its core. In the aftermath of the New York Times’ illuminating investigation into widespread accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, few […]
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My college, Somerville, was recently in the national press for our initial failure, and then (to use a favourite phrase!) U-turn on the matter of gender neutral toilets. So when I saw Gavin Grimm was speaking at the Union, I knew I had to go. Grimm made headlines in the US and beyond when he […]
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I think it’s fair to say that we are no longer shocked. But we are definitely repulsed, outraged and, most of all, exhausted. How many stories of outright misogyny must we hear before something changes? This year’s annual President’s Club gala charity dinner was no different to the other thirty-three, except for the attendance of […]
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When I saw that Jared O’Mara had been suspended from the Labour party I felt a rush of relief. My only wish was that it had happened even sooner. If we have learnt anything in the last few weeks, it is that women do not feel always safe; we do not feel safe in the workplace, we do not […]
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When you hear the words ‘fashion week,’ typically the first image to pop into your head is one of the long catwalks of New York, London, Paris and Milan, featuring beautiful, tall, and thin women dressed exquisitely in the newest designs. For the most part, this image is true. In recent decades, fashion has been […]
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In 2015, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy became the first Pakistani filmmaker to win two Academy Awards with her documentary A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, which exposes the practice of honour killings in Pakistan. Her first was awarded in 2012 for Saving Face, a documentary which followed the victims of acid attacks. Born and […]
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Following the acquisition of a second building at Norham Gardens, students of all sexes will be able to apply to the Permanent Private Hall from the 2015 admissions cycle. In a statement to the Oxford Student, Professor Werner Jeanrond, the Master of St. Benet’s, wrote: “Everybody in St. Benet’s is delighted that we have finally […]
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Somerville and Oriel students are hosting ‘Equaliweek’ this week, a series of talks and events that aim to promote diversity and freedom from discrimination.
Continue ReadingSince its release in the spring, the ‘unrated’ version of Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ (for the full music video, see below) has attracted a lot of attention. But I think it’s high time everyone stopped banging on about the men in the video. I find the public focus on their well-cut, moderately edgy suits – not […]
Continue ReadingThe Oxford English Dictionary is to change its definition of marriage after a law authorising same-sex weddings passed its final hurdle last month. Currently, the dictionary includes a reference to same-sex marriage being legal “in some jurisdictions”, but this move is expected to amend the entry itself. “We continually monitor the words in our dictionaries, paying particular [attention] […]
Continue ReadingThe past few weeks in Oxford have seen a multitude of talks, events and PR aimed at raising the profile of feminism in our university and stimulating dialogue about gender relations. The ‘why I need feminism’ meme proved particularly potent, with dozens of men and women taking part. Despite the slightly odd use of the […]
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