Brave New World: how women can lead the way

In this provocative talk that celebrates women past, present and future, Clare Shine explores what it will take for women to overcome the ties that still hold them back—and lead. The Lady White Lecture 2014 at St Johns College. 100 years ago the Great War changed the fate of a generation of women—and all those to come. It “found them serfs and left them free” as women en masse left the kitchen, entered the work place and tasted the delights of greater economic and political freedom. In richer countries, today’s generation of women have never done better at school, have vastly broader choices open to them and are set to live longer than any cohort in history. So why does business-as-usual still dominate the public sphere and why do so many women mute their voices? Can we get beyond contortionist antics of “having it all”? Should we “lie back”, “lean in” or rally women and men to launch a new movement for radical change? Clare Shine has never quite found a way to fit within the box. One of the earliest alumnae, whose international career has straddled business, the Bar, environmental policy and arts journalism for the Financial Times, she is currently Vice President and Chief Program Officer at Salzburg Global Seminar as well as a wife and mother.

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Today, St John's is home to approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 graduate students, 100 fellows and 25 College lecturers. Nearly every subject studied at the University is represented in St John's. A vibrant international community, it fosters intellectual rigour, creativity, and independence in its students, teachers, and researchers. St John's was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas White, a wealthy London merchant. White was Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and established a number of educational foundations including the Merchant Taylors' schools. Although primarily a producer of Anglican clergymen in the earlier periods of its history, St John's also gained a reputation for both law and medicine. Fellows and alumni have included Archbishop Laud, Jane Austen's father and brothers, the early Fabian intellectual Sidney Ball, and Abdul Rasul, one of the first Bengalis to gain the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford. More recently, graduates of St John's have included the novelists and poets A.E. Housman, Robert Graves, Kingsley Amis, Philip Larkin and John Wain, as well as former Prime Minister, Tony Blair.