Resisting Total Takeover
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Pandora When we talk about the oppression of women, we may idealize certain countries who seem to have been successful in creating real, material gains for women - and we may look in horror at countries where women have little to no power, or who suffer under a great deal of male violence. Reality is often much more contradictory. In cultures that may be feminist-friendly and equality-minded - masculine values and patriarchal networks still find a way to dominate. Or in cultures where women are fighting for their very existence, new feminist and women-centered systems spring to life where least expected.
In their new book, Planet Patriarchy: Global Tales of Feminism and Oppression, veteran feminists, award-winning authors and journalists Rahila Gupta and Beatrix Campbell take a close look at 8 very different countries - to discover the many varied faces of patriarchy.
The societies Rahila and Beatrix report on; Iceland, South Africa, El Salvador, China, Russia, ISIS, Saudi Arabia, and Rojava, have very different histories, cultures, and political and economical systems - everything from military dictatorships, to liberal democracies, to religious monarchies, state-run capitalist, and post-revolutionary societies - or a mix - but what unifies them and what is present always - is the patriarchal power structures that run through whatever the governing systems happen to be.
In this hour, Elle talks to Beatrix and Rahila about their epic journey around our world, now nearly overtaken by overlapping and intersecting patriarchal power structures - and how women in different parts of the world are resisting male domination, fighting for women’s rights and interests, and maintaining solidarity in their movements. Patriarchy may endure, but so does feminism and the struggle to achieve liberation for all women.
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Journalist, Author & Activist
Rahila Gupta is an independent journalist, author and activist, who has been at the forefront of the feminist movement in the UK and globally since the 1980s. She is Trustee of Southall Black Sisters, a group which has campaigned and advocated for black and minority women escaping violence for 40 years.
Rahila Gupta grew up between India and England, and was a journalist in London during the Thatcher years. She has written for the Guardian, New Humanist, New Internationalist and openDemocracy among other magazines, journals and websites.
Her books include a collection of essays she edited, From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters in 2003; Provoked, the story of an abused woman who killed her violent husband and she also co-wrote the screenplay for the film which was released in 2007; Enslaved, on immigration controls, was published in 2007. Her play, a monologue in verse, Don’t Wake Me: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong, ran in London, Edinburgh, New York, and four cities in India 2012-2014 and was nominated for a number of awards. She was a member of the writing team on a BBC drama series, Westway, from 2000-2002. She was awarded the Flame Award by UKAFF (UK Asian Film Festival) for Championing Women’s Rights in 2018.
She has edited and contributed to Turning the Page (2019), an anthology of writings by the Southall Black Sisters support group, and is a Royal Literary Fund writing fellow. Her book Planet Patriarchy: Global Tales of Feminism and Oppression, co-authored with Beatrix Campbell, was published in 2025, and her most recen… Read More
Author, Broadcaster & Activist
Beatrix Campbell is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and political activist. She has been a well-known figure in the Women's Liberation Movement in the UK since the early 1970s, co-founding the feminist and Marxist journal Red Rag, and was part of the Time Out staff who, after a long equal pay strike and occupation at Time Out formed the co-operatively-owned magazine City Limits.
Her books include the award-winning Wigan Pier Revisited, and her documentaries include I Shot My Husband and No One Asked Me Why. She has written about politics, crime, community, gender, child abuse and sexual politics for a range of publications from The Guardian, The Independent, The New Statesman, and Marxism Today. Her latest book, Planet Patriarchy: Global Tales of Feminism and Oppression, co-authored with Rahila Gupta, was published in 2025.
A charismatic speaker and campaigner, she has received many awards, including the Nancy Astor Media Awards Campaigning Journalist of the Year, six honorary doctorates and an OBE for services to equality.