The Oxford Union last night held a lively debate on the motion “this house believes we are all feminists now” to mark 50 years since women were admitted as members of the student society. Opposing the motion were Rachel Johnson, Edwina Currie, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and New Statesman writer Laurie Penny — and proceedings did not remain wholly sisterly.
St Anne’s PPE graduate Currie declared she was “definitely not a feminist”, seeing feminism as “barren and humourless”. Penny summed up with her own vision of feminism — “I couldn’t give a damn about boardrooms: get all men and all women out of boardrooms and set fire to them” — before she turned on her own side in a magnificent switcheroo attacking Currie’s “disgusting sentiments” and asking the audience, to support the motion after all.
She got a standing ovation but her pleas were in vain. The house rejected the motion, proposed by Michael Beloff (who was president when women were admitted to the Union in 1963) by 167 votes to 125.
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