feminism

The first feminist I ever met was my dad. I didn’t realise he was a feminist. I didn’t even know what the word meant. I was, after all, one of three daughters and I simply assumed that everyone had the same attitude towards girls as he had towards us: that we could be whatever we […]

London, England – January 19, 2011: Portobello Road, Notting Hill. A man walking in front of George Orwell House. The blue plaque on the top says: “George Orwell 1903 – 1950 novelist and a political essayist lived here”.   Blue plaques are found right across Greater London, showing us where important people in history have […]

  A Century of Female Suffrage Today marks 100 years since the Representation of the People Act 1918, which was the first step towards giving all women the right to vote.  While it is important to recognise that the Act gave only certain privileged women the right to vote, it is a milestone we are proud […]

Joanna Russ, radical feminist author and scholar, was born on this day in 1937. An entertaining and challenging novelist, Russ began her writing career in the 1950s, although her feminist concerns only really emerged through her work with the publication of her Alyx stories in the 1960s. She was an out lesbian in a time […]

In January this year Emma Watson launched her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf, inspired by her own exploration of brilliant literature about women and equality. As she wrote at the time, ‘there is so much amazing stuff out there! Funny, inspiring, sad, thought-provoking, empowering! I’ve been discovering so much that, at times, I’ve felt […]

Everyone’s talking about Fifty Shades again this week.* We can only assume they’re celebrating our recent paperback release of Fifty Shades of Feminism, the seminal, eye-opening, downright essential collection of short takes on feminism today! Is being a woman all about submitting to desire?  There are many more shades than that . . . and here are fifty […]

As previously noted, we will be republishing noted critic and reviewer Kev McVeigh’s ‘From the Attic’ columns over the coming weeks, to give new readers the opportunity to encounter his sage observations on some very important and all-too-often overlooked authors . . . Two things: 1. SFF has seemed to me to be the one […]

As a little gift from Virago to you this yuletide, we wanted to send you all cards . . . not your traditional Christmas card, we’ll admit, but some of our favourite feminist quotations to keep you inspired. They all feature in I Call Myself a Feminist, the essay collection which we published in November, […]

As we noted last month, we will be republishing noted critic and reviewer Kev McVeigh’s ‘From the Attic’ columns over the comiong weeks, to give new readers the opportunity to encounter his sage observations on some very important and all-too-often overlooked authors . . .   Pat Murphy says her favourite bird is the mockingbird […]

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who sent us their favourite feminist quotes back in June. We loved them all, and a few even managed to make their way into the final manuscript of I Call Myself a Feminist. To find out which ones made the cut, you’ll just have to read […]

Two years ago today, we published the first in a series of posts wherein SF reviewer and critic, Kev McVeigh looked at a issue both topical and important: the place of women in SF and Fantasy. As well as addressing some historical injustices, Kev highlighted a number of more modern women writers who have been […]

We are delighted to welcome Edward Cox back to the Gollancz Blog for a special guest post. What does it mean to wear the cape? Here’s a truth: I struggle to call myself a feminist. I support feminism, I believe in equality, I find it astounding and ridiculous that so many people still have to […]