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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

Painting of a man and woman in elegant 18th-century attire sitting on a pink sofa with ornate decoration.

essay

History of ideas

Settling accounts

Before he was famous, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was Louise Dupin’s scribe. It’s her ideas on inequality that fill his writings

Rebecca Wilkin

Painting of two clothed men and a naked woman picnicking in a forest, with another woman in the background near a pond.

video

Art

Creating art that was aware of itself – and the viewer – made Manet the first modernist

15 minutes

A historical painting of a woman in a detailed blue and silver gown with lace sleeves. She wears a pearl necklace and a hat adorned with white and pink flowers. The background features a golden tapestry and dark pillars.

essay

Stories and literature

Her blazing world

Margaret Cavendish’s boldness and bravery set 17th-century society alight, but is she a feminist poster-girl for our times?

Francesca Peacock

Two people with backpacks reach towards each other with extended arms but are not touching. The text on the image reads ‘How do we touch when we can’t?’

video

Film and visual culture

‘Bags here are rarely innocent’ – how filmmakers work around censorship in Iran

8 minutes

A person with black hair and glasses, in a teal T-shirt with VIBES in rainbow text, and a backpack stands smiling in a garden with flowers and trees.

video

Wellbeing

Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest

11 minutes

A group of women, some wearing hijabs and masks, hold up signs with handwritten text in Arabic script during a protest.

video

Politics and government

How it looked to Afghan women to see the Taliban return to power

33 minutes

Illustration of a female group in white togas and red headbands, standing with arms raised before a flaming brazier in a Roman temple with columns.

video

The ancient world

The six priestesses who kept the flame of ancient Rome alight at risk of death

5 minutes

Artwork depicting a family group composed of angular lines and triangles, some but not all coloured, on a paper background

essay

Family life

A patchwork family

After my marriage failed, I strove to create a new family – one made beautiful by the loving way it’s stitched together

Lily Dunn

A group of girls walk past the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC

essay

Gender and identity

Silencing of the girls

Girls are still in a bad bargain with patriarchy: the price of relationship is keeping their true thoughts to themselves

Carol Gilligan

A woman with grey hair lies down, partially covered with a colourful, patterned blanket against a textured wall.

video

Human rights and justice

Witch hunts persist as a horrifying, deadly reality in pockets of rural India

24 minutes

Two stick figures, one purple and one white, touching heads with scribbled lines above them, depicting a heated argument.

video

Gender

When aggression is viewed as brilliance, it hurts women in science, and science itself

5 minutes

Ancient Roman fresco depicting two figures engaging in an intimate moment on a bed, with a background of earthy tones and visible cracks in the surface.

essay

The ancient world

The horrors of Pompeii

The name ‘Eutychis’ was etched into a wall 2,000 years ago. Finding out who she was illuminates the dark side of Rome

Guy D Middleton

Elderly person with a serious expression and a cigarette in their mouth, wearing a grey sweater, standing in front of a house with a curtain and wooden chair.

video

Gender

The ‘sworn virgins’ of Albania who trade femininity for freedom

10 minutes

Women wearing striped uniforms and medals, holding a Ravensbrück banner and umbrellas, participating in a commemorative event outdoors.

essay

History

The life of Wanda Półtawska

Her closeness to Pope John Paul furnished him with anti-abortion ideals, fuelled by her survival of the Ravensbrück camp

Joy Neumeyer

A woman with a towel around her shoulders and hair clips sits in a salon, holding a cigarette and a mug, with a radio and beauty accessories on the counter.

video

Politics and government

Join the spirited debate at a women’s hair salon before a pivotal election in Tunisia

19 minutes

A sepia-toned, historical photograph of a woman sitting and reading a book, wearing a dark dress with puffed sleeves.

essay

Human rights and justice

Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist

Taking up arms against slavery, the famous novelist foreshadowed the vexed role of the white woman activist today

Lydia Moland

An elderly man in chains suckles from a woman in a red dress while two guards observe through a barred window.

essay

Art

Milk, pity and power

Since antiquity, artists have depicted a perverse scene of a daughter breastfeeding her aged father. What does it mean?

Margie Orford

Construction workers sitting and standing around, some wearing hard hats, during a break outside a building, with a temporary orange safety fence visible.

essay

Gender and identity

A manly divorce

Straight men rarely write about the end of their marriages. Our enduring ideas about gender explain this silence

Joshua Coleman

Woman writing at a desk facing a window. Bookshelves with books and a blue vase are in the background. Ink bottle and open book are in the foreground.

essay

Thinkers and theories

Masham and me

Were it not for her friendship with John Locke, the radical feminist gems of philosopher Damaris Masham might be unknown

Regan Penaluna

Woman in a pink blouse and grey skirt sits on a floor surrounded by abstract colourful paintings on walls.

video

Art

The female Abstract Expressionists of New York shook the world of art

15 minutes

A conductor passionately leads an orchestra, holding a baton in one hand and gesturing with the other, with a focused expression in a dimly lit venue.

essay

Music

Enter the conductrice

Will a new generation of women on the podium perpetuate the tyrannical charisma of their male predecessors or overturn it?

Xenia Hanusiak

A vintage photograph of a bustling outdoor market scene with numerous women in old-fashioned attire, gathered around stalls with goods and laundry hanging above.

essay

History

Women at the barricades

The transgressions of working-class women formed the revolutionary heart of the 1871 Paris Commune

Carolyn Eichner

People in historical attire gather in a grand hall, with some women being inspected by men and dogs nearby; children and others fill the background.

essay

History

The doxxing of Rose Mainville

When a young street vendor found her name in a guidebook to the sex workers of Paris, she couldn’t live with the shame

Amanda E Herbert & David N Woodworth

A woman in a black top sits inside a vehicle, looking pensive, with her fist resting on her chin and other vehicles visible in the background.

video

Work

Living out of a truck, Maikhuu finds promise and peril on Mongolia’s ‘coal highway’

25 minutes