Here, @jadadamsauthor.bsky.social shares personal insights into Benn’s humour, values and the enduring relevance of his vision in today’s world 👉
www.bitebackpublishing.com/posts/tony-b...

In the West, certainties are under attack with the loss of reproductive rights in the US and the rise of misogynistic influencers and a philosophy of perverted women-hating in incel communities. If Femen are angry, I get it. I just wonder: why isn't everyone else?

In the Middle East extreme Islamists were weaponising rape and sex slavery and over a short period - four years - this was shown to be not just a shocking aberration produced in war: civil governments in Iran and Afghanistan created societies contemptuous of any notion of womens' rights.

In education, employment, reproductive and legal rights it was a tale of advancement.
By the time the paperback came out in 2016 there were signs of reversal, not least the spectacle of grotesque man-babies like Trump, Modi and Putin asserting power.

When I published Women and the Vote: A World History in 2014 (OUP) it was a tale of progress (with setbacks). At that time the last countries where women had no political power, the Gulf States, were enfranchising women & even Saudi Arabia was accepting women in what local democracy existed there.

The problem with it was not so much its existence as the way it was introduced, driving the poorest (like small tradespeople with old, polluting vehicles) out of work. It's a classic example of a good policy badly delivered.