Laura Bates (born 27 August 1986,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

) is an English feminist writer. She founded the

Everyday Sexism Project The Everyday Sexism Project is a website founded on 16 April 2012 by Laura Bates, a British feminist writer. The aim of the site is to document examples of sexism from around the world. Entries may be submitted directly to the site, or by email or ...

website in April 2012. Her first book, ''Everyday Sexism'', was published in 2014.

Biography

Bates' parents are Diane Elizabeth Bates, a French teacher, and Adrian Keith Bates, a physician. She grew up in the

London Borough of Hackney London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, and has an older sister and a younger brother. Her parents divorced when Bates was in her twenties. She attended

King's College, Taunton (Strong and faithful) , established = 1880 , closed = , type = Independent day and boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

. She read English literature at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, and graduated from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 2007. Bates remained in Cambridge for two-and-a-half years as a researcher for the psychologist

Susan Quilliam Susan Quilliam (born 1950 in Liverpool) is a British relationship expert who specialises in love and sexuality. She works as an advice columnist, writer, broadcaster, consultant, trainer and coach. Quilliam is associated with several relation ...

, who was working on an updated edition of ''

The Joy of Sex ''The Joy of Sex'' is a 1972 illustrated sex manual by British author Alex Comfort. An updated edition was released in September 2008. Overview ''The Joy of Sex'' spent eleven weeks at the top of the ''New York Times'' bestseller list and more ...

''. Bates then worked as an actress and a nanny, a period during which she has said she experienced sexism at auditions and found the young girls she was caring for were already preoccupied with their body image.

Everyday Sexism Project

The Everyday Sexism Project website was founded in 2012. Around the third anniversary of the website, in April 2015, Everyday Sexism had reached 100,000 entries. Bates has said that she has faced abuse online. Bates' first book ''Everyday Sexism'', based on the project, was published by the London subsidiary of

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

in 2014.

Career

After ''Everyday Sexism'', Bates published several more books about sexism. Bates is a contributor to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and other publications. She is a contributor to the New York–based

Women Under Siege Project The Women Under Siege Project is an independent initiative of the Women's Media Center (WMC). The project documents online and through social media how rape and gender-based violence are used as tools in warfare and genocide. The project uses jour ...

Honours and awards

* 2013: ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'' magazine's Ultimate New Feminist Award in 2013. * 2014: BBC's 100 women. * 2015:

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

in the

2015 Birthday Honours The 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

for services to gender equality. * 2018:

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

in its "40 Under 40" initiative. * 2020: Honorary Fellow of

Personal life

Bates married Nick Taylor in 2014.

Publications

* 2014: ''Everyday Sexism: The Project that Inspired a Worldwide Movement'', Simon & Schuster * 2016: ''Girl Up: Kick Ass, Claim Your Woman Card, and Crush Everyday Sexism'', Simon & Schuster * 2018: ''Misogynation: The True Scale of Sexism'', Simon & Schuster * 2019: ''The Burning'', Simon & Schuster * 2020: ''Men Who Hate Women'', Simon & Schuster * 2022: ''Fix the System, Not the Women'', Simon & Schuster

References

External links

The Everyday Sexism ProjectEverydaySexism
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Laura 1986 births Living people 21st-century English women writers 21st-century English writers Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge BBC 100 Women English feminist writers English women non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fourth-wave feminism The Guardian people People from Hackney Central writers from Oxford People educated at King's College, Taunton