To mark International Women’s Day 2014, in this podcast we hear from an all-female line-up of Birkbeck academics and the College’s President, Baroness Joan Bakewell.
Baroness Bakewell discusses her experiences as a female student at Cambridge in the 1950s and one of the first female television presenters at the BBC. She shares reflections on her recent meeting with Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi (0:00 – 8:50).
Dr Rosie Campbell (Department of Politics) reveals the results of her study into barriers to mothers entering Parliament and shares her ideas for a possible solution (8:50 seconds – 13:30). Read a blog post about this research.
Dr Janet McCabe (Department of Media, Film and Cultural Studies) talks about the “unremitting surveillance” of female ageing in celebrity culture today (13:30 – 18:50). Read an article on the topic of celebrity and ageing by Dr McCabe in The Guardian.
Dr Sarah Lamble (School of Law) questions why there hasn’t been more progress in improving the experience of women within the UK’s Criminal Justice System (18:50 – 23:00).
Dr Ioanna Boulouta (Department of Management) shares insights from her research into why having more women in the boardroom might affect a company’s corporate social responsibility results (23:00 – 27:40). For more information on Dr Boulouta’s research into gender balance on corporate boards and corporate social responsibility see her paper Hidden Connections: The Link between Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Social Performance
Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith (Department of Psychological Sciences) offers advice about building a career in the male-dominated world of science, and observes that thing are improving in terms of gender equality (27:40 – 31:00). Read a blog post with tips on finding work-life balance by Professor Karmiloff-Smith.
