History Becomes Her

Jess Phillips is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley and the author of Truth to Power and Everywoman. When she’s not standing up in the House of Commons, calling out the prime minister for playing “bully-boy games” during Brexit votes, she’s shedding light on the reality of being a woman in politics. That reality is pretty terrifying. She receives death and rape threats every day of her life. And one night received 600 rape threats in one night. She has panic alarms installed in her home and office. On 16 June 2016, Phillips’s friend, the MP Jo Cox, was assassinated by a far-right terrorist in her constituency. We spoke to Phillips about Jo Cox, and how she should be remembered. In this episode, Phillips talks about her admiration for Annie Kenney, the working-class suffragette and socialist feminist. She also discusses the lessons we can learn from Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist who was murdered in October 2017. Phillips also pays tribute to the activists behind Ireland's Repeal The 8th campaign to legalise abortion.Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.Special thanks to Jess Phillips MP, Midas PR, and Octopus Books.Credits: Host and creator: Rachel ThompsonProducers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay NikolovEditor: Shannon ConnellanMusic: Christianne StrakerIllustration: Vicky Leta

Vicky Spratt and Diane Munday are campaigning to decriminalise abortion in England, Scotland, and Wales.Diane Munday campaigned to legalise abortion in Britain in the 1960s. Her activism has not only changed women’s lives in this country — but saved them. Munday had a termination in 1961, when it was illegal. Her husband’s salary meant she was able to afford the procedure. But a friend of hers who had a backstreet abortion died. She went on to fight for the legalisation of abortion in Britain. Over 50 years after the 1967 Abortion Act was passed, Munday is fighting for legal reform.Along with journalist Vicky Spratt, Munday is fighting for the decrimalisation of abortion in England and Wales. Spratt has also changed the law. Her #MakeRentingFair campaign resulted in the government banning letting agency fees for tenants. Now, Spratt and Munday — two women who’ve already changed the law — are campaigning legal reform with Refinery29's #ImACriminal campaign. Listen to the episode to find out more about this important campaign. You can sign their Change.org petition here.Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.Special thanks to Refinery29, Vicky Spratt, Diane Munday, and Nina Joyce.Credits: Host and creator: Rachel ThompsonProducers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay NikolovEditor: Shannon ConnellanMusic: Christianne StrakerIllustration: Vicky Leta

Sofie Hagen is a Danish comedian who co-created the Guilty Feminist podcast with Deborah Frances White. Hagen is non-binary and uses pronouns she/they/he. Hagen is a fat acceptance campaigner and plus size fashion designer, who speaks candidly about our culture’s ingrained anti-fat bias and the subtle and overt ways society continues to marginalise and discriminate against fat people. In this episode of History Becomes Her, Hagen discusses her admiration for civil rights activist Rosa Parks. Hagen also shares how she got started in the fat acceptance movement and how people can unlearn their ingrained anti-fat bias. In her book Happy Fat Hagen writes about the reality of being fat in a world that wants you to take up less space. She talks about being spat on and having someone tell her, “if you weren’t so fat, I’d rape you.” Hagen wants to reclaim the word “fat” and live in a world built on self-acceptance and loving your body.Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9.Special thanks to Sofie Hagen and HarperCollins.Credits: Host and creator: Rachel ThompsonProducers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay NikolovEditor: Shannon ConnellanMusic: Christianne StrakerIllustration: Vicky Leta

Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian, YouTuber, and podcaster. Hughes is the co-host of Crooked Media's What A Day podcast and one of the few black women hosting a daily news podcast. Podcasting has a representation problem. There are more podcasts than ever before, but women and people of colour are still sorely underrepresented as hosts, especially when it comes to daily news.This week's episode is hosted by Jess Joho, a staff writer at Mashable based in Los Angeles. In this episode, Hughes discusses representation in podcasting, her book Obviously: Stories from My Timeline, and how she practices self-care as someone reporting on daily news. In the episode, Hughes shares her admiration for Constance Baker Motley, an African-American civil rights activist and and the first African American woman to become a federal judge. Motley was the assistant attorney to Thurgood Marshall arguing the case Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Motley was the first black woman to serve in the New York State Senate and the first woman to be Manhattan Borough President. Motley was a lead trial attorney for a number of significant civil rights cases, and represented Martin Luther King, Jr., the Freedom Riders, and the Birmingham Children Marchers. She was widely regarded as the leading courtroom strategist of the civil rights movement.Important note: This episode was recorded in February 2020, during Black History Month in the U.S. when the Democratic Primaries were in full swing.Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Jess Joho on Twitter @jessjoho. You can find Akilah Hughes on Twitter @AkilahObviously.Special thanks to Akilah Hughes and Jess Joho.Credits: Host: Jess JohoCreator: Rachel ThompsonProducers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay NikolovEditor: Shannon ConnellanMusic: Christianne StrakerIllustration: Vicky Leta

Ruth Hunt is one of Britain’s leading LGBTQ campaigners. She has played a central role in campaigning for same sex marriage in England and Wales and access to fertility treatment for lesbians. After becoming chief executive of LGBTQ rights charity Stonewall in 2014, Hunt spearheaded the organisation's commitment to campaigning for trans equality. She is credited with transforming Stonewall from an LGB charity to a fully trans-inclusive LGBTQ charity during her tenure.Stonewall was founded in the UK as a response to Section 28 — a law passed in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher that stopped councils and schools "promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." In this episode of History Becomes Her, Hunt discusses how this law affected people who went to school during the time this legislation was in effect and reflected on her own experience growing up in that era. Hunt also talks about about the straightwashing and erasure of LGBTQ history and her love for author Virginia Woolf.Hunt left Stonewall in 2019, and that year, she was made a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords. She now runs Deeds and Words, a consultancy that works to build inclusive cultures in workplaces. Her book, The Book of Queer Prophets: 24 Writers on Sexuality and Religion, is out now.Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9. Special thanks to Ruth Hunt and Deeds and Words.Credits: Creator and host: Rachel ThompsonProducers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay NikolovEditor: Shannon ConnellanMusic: Christianne StrakerIllustration: Vicky Leta

Zing Tsjeng is a journalist and the author of the Forgotten Women book series. These four books provide fascinating biographies of the leaders, scientists, artists, and writers who are notably absent from our history books. As Tsjeng notes in her books, women account for around half of the world’s population, but they only occupy around 0.5% of recorded history. For those of us who grew up learning a lot about Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, Christopher Columbus, and Abraham Lincoln, you might have wondered what women were getting up to during this time. They were very busy, it turns out. In this episode, we learn about some of the fascinating women who changed the course of history but didn’t get a mention in the books we read at school.Tsjeng also pays tribute to her grandmother, who smuggled food to British prisoners of war during the occupation of Hong Kong while raising seven children. You'll also learn about U.S.-based peace activist Concepción Picciotto, Chinese pirate leader Ching Shih, and the Mirabal Sisters, who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Please subscribe, rate, and review. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @HBHPod. You can find Rachel on Twitter @RVT9. Special thanks to Zing Tsjeng and Octopus Publishing Group.Credits: Creator and host: Rachel ThompsonProducers: Maria Dermentzi and Nikolay NikolovEditor: Shannon ConnellanMusic: Christianne StrakerIllustration: Vicky Leta