Events and tickets
Tuesday 27th October
Open to all, regardless of sex or student status
7:00-8:30PM
The Cambridge University Society of Women is proud to present our next guest speaker event with Helen Joyce. Join us from 19:00-20:30 on Tuesday 27th of October. Doors will open at 18:45. The central Cambridge location will be communicated to ticket holders beforehand via the email under which the ticket is purchased.
Helen will be speaking to us about her fascinating and episodic career, from academia to journalism to advocacy. Given her experience in so many different fields, several of which are majority-male, she has a wealth of knowledge and advice to offer young women beginning their careers (though the event is open to all). This event will feature an extended Q&A session and (of course!) a pub trip afterwards.
Helen Joyce is author of “TRANS: When Ideology Meets Reality”, (recently reissued as “Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights”). A Times of London and Spectator book of the year, it is a UK and Amazon top ten bestseller. It received rave reviews in publications ranging from the Telegraph to the New York Times, and endorsements from, among others, Daniel Dennett (“A sane, humane book”), Lionel Shriver (“Utterly unintimidated by extremist orthodoxy”) and Richard Dawkins (“Thoroughly researched, passionate and very brave”).
Until April 2022, Helen was The Economist’s Britain editor. She joined the paper in 2005 as education correspondent; subsequent jobs include Brazil correspondent (based in São Paulo), International editor, Finance editor and Executive editor for events. Before that she edited Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and was founding editor for the Royal Statistical Society’s magazine, Significance. She has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College Dublin, a Master’s from Cambridge and a PhD from University College London, all in mathematics.
Helen now works as director of advocacy for Sex Matters, a human-rights charity that campaigns for sex-based rights. Her independent journalism and subscription newsletter can be found on her website: thehelenjoyce.com. She writes a regular column in the Critic magazine and tweets @hjoycegender. In non-gender-related work, she provides messaging guidance and media training to a variety of public and private-sector organisations and individuals, with a special focus on navigating difficult and hostile interviews.
Speaker information
Past events
Thursday 7th May
7:00-8:30PM
Open to all, regardless of sex or student status
The Cambridge University Society of Women is proud to present our next guest speaker event, ‘Intergenerational Feminism: An evening with Victoria Smith’ Join us from 19:00-20:30 on Thursday 7th of May. Doors will open at 18:45. The central Cambridge location will be communicated to ticket holders beforehand via the email under which the ticket is purchased.
Open to all University members and the general public, the evening will comprise a talk followed by an audience Q&A. The focus is on creating a space for free and civil discussion, debate and disagreement.
The event will explore how feminism can build and sustain solidarity across generations, and what role the "TERF" label may play in pressuring younger women to disidentify from older women and the feminism they represent.
Victoria Smith is a feminist author and journalist whose work focuses on the politics of women's oppression, misogyny, and the treatment of older women in public life. Her book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women (2023) was widely acclaimed as a sharp and witty examination of how society polices, dismisses and punishes women as they age. Her most recent book, Unkind, explores how “be kind” culture entrenches sexism.
She writes the Substack newsletter The OK Karen and has contributed to publications including the New Statesman, the Guardian, the Critic and the Times. She tweets at @glosswitch
Speaker information
Tuesday 10th March
6:30-8:00PM
Open to all, regardless of sex or student status
The Cambridge University Society of Women is proud to present our next guest speaker event, ‘Voices of Afghan Women and Girls.’ Join us from 18:30-20:00 on Tuesday 10th March. Doors will open at 18:15. The central Cambridge location will be communicated to ticket holders beforehand via the email under which the ticket is purchased.
Open to all university members and the general public, this event will bring together girls in Afghanistan who are studying English online with Victory Afghanistan, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to empowering Afghan girls and women through free online education and mentorship. We will also be hearing from three women who arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in September 2025 to take up prestigious Chevening Scholarships. After listening to the experiences and thoughts of our speakers, audience members will be invited to participate in a mediated Q&A.
This event is a collaboration between CUSW and the Women’s Rights Network, an organisation of women across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland dedicated to promoting and defending the human rights of women and girls. The WRN are in regular contact with women and girls in Afghanistan, actively supporting them via raising awareness, providing schools with resources and working closely with Victory Afghanistan to support women and girls’ access to education.
Monday 2nd March
7:00-8:30PM
Open to all, regardless of sex or student status
The Cambridge University Society of Women is delighted to be hosting feminist, campaigner, author and journalist Julie Bindel for a guest speaker event at 19:00-20:30 on March 2nd, 2026. Doors will open at 18:45. The central Cambridge location will be communicated to ticket holders beforehand via the email under which the ticket is purchased.
Open to all University members and the general public, the evening will comprise a talk from Julie examining how the global sex trade intersects with power, inequality, and women’s rights. Drawing on decades of frontline research and activism, Julie challenges dominant narratives around “choice” and “empowerment,” arguing for a feminist analysis that centres the lived realities of women in prostitution and the political forces that sustain the industry. This will be followed by a Q&A, during which all audience members may contribute their questions and thoughts. The focus is on creating a space for free and civil discussion, debate and disagreement.
Speaker information
Julie Bindel is an investigative journalist, author and feminist campaigner against all forms of men’s violence towards women and girls.
She is the author of Lesbians: Where Are We Now? (Swift Press, 2025); Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation (Little Brown, 2021); The Pimping of Prostitution (Palgrave, 2017); and Straight Expectations (Guardian Books, 2014).
Julie is currently a Visiting Researcher at the University of Reading Law School and co-host of the Lesbian Project Podcast with Kathleen Stock. She also writes on Substack.
Her latest podcast series, Pride and Predator, investigates the Pride in Surrey child abuse scandal