Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
2018 marks 100 years since some women in the UK got the right to vote. In those 100 years, there have been a total of 491 women MPs. By contrast, 442 men were elected in the 2017 General Election alone. These simple statistics portray the grave inequality that lies at the very heart of Parliament. […]
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Image Credit: Sevda (CC0) With Love Island upping its average viewership to 3.3 million this year, as opposed to last year’s 1.1 million, I know I am not alone in obsessing over this most dramatic of TV shows. My viewing ritual is simple but effective, watching the show live whenever possible and on demand otherwise, […]
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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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Oxford University’s Department of Materials has come under fire from a former student, accused of sexism after an invitation for an alumni event invited “partners and wives” to attend the evening. Dr Anna Ploszajski, who left the university in 2013 and has since been named Young Engineer of the Year 2017 by the Royal Academy […]
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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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No reasonable person views the recent scandal over pay as raising issues limited to the BBC. Whilst the right-wing tabloids seized upon the opportunity to savage what they deem to be an instrument of the liberal elite, others contemplated a more interesting talking point: how does the just society allocate its resources? This question, at the heart of much contemporary political debate, was just one of those to which Harvard philosopher John […]
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In a world which seems to want to move away from using gender to understand identity, artist Grayson Perry’s All Man is a fascinating look at the complexities and contradictions that make up modern masculinity, studying the extremes of society to get to the root of the “vortex of male dysfunction” he sees in Britain […]
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The music industry’s public image is in a difficult place as high-profile cases of ingrained sexism come to light. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Canadian artist Grimes (real name Claire Boucher) revealed that numerous male producers have demanded sex from her, refusing to continue working on her songs unless she acquiesced. This isn’t […]
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An Oxford University academic and OUSU’s Women’s Campaign have criticised the Oxford English Dictionary after a row on Twitter uncovered instances of “sexism” in the Dictionary. The committee of WomCam told The Oxford Student it was “disappointing” to see that several of the Dictionary’s example sentences associate a particular gender with certain words. The example […]
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When the No More Page 3 campaign announced unconfirmed reports that The Sun, after 44 years, had dropped Page 3, social media exploded and, for a moment, the world was blissfully able to believe that Rupert Murdoch had done something good. That is, until The Sun staged a dramatic u-turn and brought the feature back […]
Continue ReadingThe link between Elliott Rodger’s massacre and the gang-rapes in Uttar Pradesh has not been considered. A subtle cultural sensationalism permeated Western reports on the latter; Indian newspapers, too busy focussing on the political upheaval or perhaps immured to the horror, simply ignored them. Remove the colour of the assailants’ skin, throw away their weapons, […]
Continue ReadingAlmost a third of male undergraduates at Oxford were awarded firsts last year compared to just a quarter of female candidates, according to statistics released by the university. Fifty-two percent of male Chemists gained firsts, compared with just thirty percent of female Chemists. In English Literature and Language, forty-two percent of men were awarded firsts, […]
Continue ReadingThis interview was originally published by The Oxford Student in November 2013. Annie Nightingale always wanted to be “cool”. After 43 years on BBC Radio 1, its longest serving and its first female DJ, she remains the epitome of the concept with her Friday night show championing “dubstep, urban and all things bassotronic”. Annie’s passion […]
Continue ReadingThe captain of the Pembroke rugby team has stepped down in the wake of the ‘Free Pussy’ scandal, after his team was relegated to Division 3 with immediate effect by the Oxford University Rugby Football Union. In a meeting last night, the JCR was told that the OURFU had banned the Pembroke team from competing […]
Continue ReadingBalliol’s JCR has passed a motion condemning Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’, meaning that the chart topping song will no longer be heard at bops or in the college bar. The motion, put forward by Balliol Women’s Officers Krista Halttunen and Emily Troup, was passed by a “substantial majority” at a JCR meeting held on Sunday. […]
Continue ReadingBefore all of you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshlings descend upon Oxford for Freshers’ Week, what to wear to the inevitable plethora of club nights will no doubt be at the forefront of your mind. Advice from fresher veterans of yesteryear will be ringing in your ears: ‘wear comfy shoes’, ‘only wear, or take out, items […]
Continue ReadingThe current debate raging in the British media on the proposed ‘censorship’ of Lads’ Mags in high street supermarkets such as the Co-operative raises important questions about fashion publications directed at women. As the Lose The Lads’ Mags campaign initiated by the groups UK Feminista and Object notes, the sexualised images that colour the pages in […]
Continue ReadingAn entz event at Christ Church this weekend became the scene of peer pressure, sexist chants and a series of challenges described by one spectator as “grotesque”. Participants performed challenges such as imitating sex acts, eating McCoy’s crisps from compromising places on other people’s bodies, and the event concluded with participants giving and receiving lap […]
Continue ReadingMy involvement in competitive debating began in my third year at school, to jibes about being a “mass debater”, which simply never got old (or funny). Moving onto the university circuit, things were similarly insular: much like other pastimes, competitive debating has a fairly large and passionate community but one which tends to keep itself […]
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