Natasha Walter

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Women Studies (2014-2015)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Women’s Rights is an initiative that draws on the University of Cambridge’s unparalleled expertise in the fields of gender studies and equality. It explores the many pressing aspects of women’s rights in the world, ranging from the importance of equality in development, religion, law and many other areas.

The Visiting Professorship in Women’s Rights has been made possible by the generous support of Carol Saper and is hosted by King’s College, Cambridge.

Natasha Walter is a British feminist writer, human rights activist and the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women.

Natasha’s first job was at Vogue magazine, she subsequently worked as a reviewer, columnist and feature writer at the Independent, the Observer and the Guardian and became a regular broadcaster particularly on BBC2’s Newsnight Review and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

In her first book, The New Feminism, Walter argued that feminists shouldn’t worry so much about sexual objectification but should focus on broader political goals. In her second book, Living Dolls, she left the political​ behind – returning to individual women’s lives and experiences. Personal is political and, in a culture in which women are slowly being turned into primped and hollow dolls, the right to be sexual without fear of shame is “essential for women’s freedom”.

In her Humanitas lectures Walter speaks on the theme of Sexism and Solidarity; not so much highlighting the return of sexism but underscoring that it never left.