'Like so many women, I’ve wanted to believe  that there is a path towards not only my own success but also the success of other women that is visible and straightforward. But over recent years the spell of upbeat rhetoric has broken. Throughout the world, confidence in progress has shattered. The certainty – even the hope – that human rights and equality might be within everyone’s reach has disintegrated. The stories I keep hearing from  women in Britain as well as from women across the globe has shown me a growing chasm between the airy rhetoric of mainstream feminism and the deep crises that so many women are experiencing.
 
Everywhere in the world, from west to east, south to north, women are struggling to win and to protect their rights, and to live in safety. They keep coming up against misogynist violence that never disappears. Today’s conflicts both within and across borders are ever more chaotic and intractable, and civilians, women and children, are often deliberately targeted in order to destroy communities. Faith in the power of international institutions to protect basic human rights has been lost, as powerful nations break rules with impunity. Ideologies that see women as lesser beings are being enforced by theocratic and authoritarian regimes. And at the same time misogyny has found unforeseen ways to mutate and strengthen, as new technology is used by powerful men to fuel poisonous patterns of male entitlement. In these dark times, faith in progress is being trampled underfoot.'

In my new book, Feminism for a World on Fire, I do not shy away from the challenges that women are facing across the world. But I also try to look for the hope that is still rising and the courage that never dies.

Feminism for a World on Fire will be published on 7 May 2026.
For all queries, please contact Zoe Hood - zoe.hood@littlebrown.co.uk