An exhibition of feminist activism charts the struggle towards equality, but hard-won rights are increasingly being taken away around the world

‘Brainwashed by a homicidal policy” is how the man just elected president of Argentina described supporters of women’s abortion rights . The far-right libertarian Javier Milei has pledged to hold a referendum to ban abortion, just three years after Argentina became the largest Latin American country to legalise it, and the country’s feminists are gearing up for a big fight to protect their reproductive rights.

This development is part of a depressing global picture. The UN has said the world is failing women and girls , and is “way off track” to meet targets to improve women’s lives. One in five girls i s married before she turns 18, it is lawful to discriminate against women in more than half the countries in the world, and almost 250 million women experience physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner each year. In Afghanistan and Iran, the slide backwards from the relatively liberal 1970s, when women thronged the universities and cafes of Kabul and Tehran, has been absolute.

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Public policies shouldn’t be shaped around boosting birth rates, says Madeleine Hewitt . Plus a letter from Val Harding

While it’s a tragedy that so many are afraid to have children due to climate breakdown, that doesn’t have to be a decision drawn from fear, but a positive, proactive choice to help solve the climate crisis ( More people not having children due to climate breakdown fears, finds research, 9 November ).

Our growing numbers place increasing strain on the environment, with the IPCC having just last year cited population growth as one of the two strongest drivers (alongside per capita GDP) of carbon emissions. A greater public understanding of how the climate crisis will impact future generations is a good thing, motivating and equipping us all to take the actions and demand the changes that are so vitally needed. In light of this, public policies should be shaped to strengthen environmental protections and adapt to managing an ageing population, rather than boost birth rates. A universal human pursuit is to want to improve things for the next generation, even if in this case it means having a smaller one.
Madeleine Hewitt
Campaigns and media officer, Population Matters

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Tate Britain, London
From Miss World to the Equal Pay Act to Reclaim the Night, via flyers and flour bombs, this extraordinary show celebrating two decades of British feminism deserves your full attention

On 20 November 1970, American comedian Bob Hope presented the annual Miss World contest at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The show was broadcast live on BBC One. “It’s quite a cattle market,” was one of his winking quips. “I’ve been back there checking calves.” Moments later, women began to throw flour bombs in his direction. The comedian was caught by the ankle as he tried to scurry from the stage.

If you feel ire (or renewed ire) at such abhorrent gags, then this is the show for you. Women in Revolt! begins in 1970, with protest banners against Miss World – “We’re not beautiful. We’re not ugly. We’re angry” – and the first Women’s Liberation Conference, held at Ruskin College in Oxford and photographed here by the 20-year old Chandan Fraser .

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1975 strike was a pivotal moment for the country – but 48 years later, Icelanders today protest at gender inequality

When, as a 20-year-old drama student, Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir joined Iceland’s 1975 women’s strike in Reykjavík – 48 years ago on Tuesday – she says she didn’t consider herself a feminist. But it proved to be a day that would change her life for ever.

It marked the moment that Kolbrún, who went on to become part of Iceland’s first gender-equal government as climate minister, became an activist.

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At the turn of the century, the tabloid press was untouchable – and women in the public eye faced ceaseless persecution. We are still grappling with the fallout today

The allegations against Russell Brand that surfaced at the weekend and which he has denied – that he is a rapist, a groomer, possessed of a nihilistic sense of impunity – appear concrete and specific, and could terminate in criminal proceedings. In the end, as fellow hero of the conspiracist manosphere Andrew Tate has discovered, the law doesn’t care about your YouTube rebuttals or how many cheerleaders you have on TikTok.

The media context that created and rewarded Brand doesn’t alter his accountability, minimise any of the accusations or even carry much weight in the establishment of his culpability, but it does demand examination.

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With residents aged from 58 to 94, New Ground is the UK’s first cohousing community exclusively for older women. Setting it up was an 18-year battle – but with soaring numbers of people living alone, is this an idea whose time has come?

Chipping Barnet, a leafy suburb of north London, is an unlikely location for a feminist utopia. Yet it is here, at the top of the high street, past the Susi Earnshaw theatre school and the Joie de Vie patisserie, that you will find Britain’s first cohousing community exclusively for women over 50. The purpose-built development is entirely managed by the women who set it up as an alternative to living alone.

New Ground ’s entrance, all glass and bold typography, could easily be mistaken for a co-working space, as could the common room I am ushered into. Everything is bright, airy and spotlessly clean. The walls are lined with sleek white bookcases and a cinema-grade TV screen. The only clue as to the residents’ demographic is an unfinished 1,000-piece jigsaw on a table overlooking the large garden.

‘We are fiercely opposed to ageism and paternalism’ … (clockwise from top left) Clare Martin, Maggs Beltran and Hilary Vernon-Smith.

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